


Panacea

by Nyakuni



Category: Original Work
Genre: Depression, Fantasy, Female Lead, Harem, Magic, Multi, multiple MCs
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-01-02
Updated: 2019-03-31
Packaged: 2019-10-02 22:10:02
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 11
Words: 29,043
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17272049
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nyakuni/pseuds/Nyakuni
Summary: Sophie is tired of her world and the tragedies in it which she is helpless to prevent. In her attempt to escape from it, she finds herself in a new one where she may finally be able to find peace.





	1. Sophie 1

**Author's Note:**

> WIP, I write as I go. Revisions may be necessary. I will try to log edits to save previous readers from re-reading.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Trimmed some fatty bits and fixed some sloppy errors.

The world was hazy around the edges, a relief to Sophie that she associated with coming out of a deep sleep. She tried to grasp and hold that state a little longer, but it was no good. It never was. Trying to cling to sleep only made the elusive creature more skittish, and clarity began to prick like needles through the fuzzy layers which had first cocooned her. The sharp, hot sting across her eyes told her she had overslept and the day was already well begun, for which a hidden and shameful part of her heart was at least thankful. A shorter day meant less of its inevitable trials to face. At least, that was how she braced herself to face the world again before a new and more horrifying possibility presented itself.

Sophie did not know where she was. The room was too large, and filled with too many beds, most of which were filled with silent occupants. A glance across her fellows was enough to give Sophie a new and concerning idea of her current situation. There was no buzz of electric lights, no humming or beeping from any machine, no distant chatter beyond the walls or visitors at bedsides, but there could be no doubt from the various states of distress and injury she witnessed on the faces and bodies of the other patients. She was in some kind of treatment facility. Possibilities rushed through her mind, each more devastating than the last. Terrorism had destroyed the proper hospitals, or they were in makeshift quarters in a quarantine zone, she was being kidnapped and held in some hidden corner of the world, and soon it would be  _her_  screaming in-

Silence? Frowning and shaking her head as if to dislodge something, Sophie peered around herself again. That was right. Never mind machines or lights, she couldn't hear  _anything_. She watched some of the patients scream, and others muttering to themselves, but didn't hear the faintest trace of sound. Panic leapt through her at the implications. "H-help! Plea-"

Sophie strangled the sob still forming in her throat. She lifted her hands to wipe at the tears that had prematurely filled her vision, embarrassed and ashamed at her own fears. It shouldn't matter so very much, but somehow instinctively it had. She'd thought she might never hear anything again, but there was her voice in her ears, just the same as always. Huffing angrily at herself, she shuffled into a sitting position and got down from the bed. She was sore all over, but she didn't have anything like the pain of the other occupants, and none of them seemed interested in stopping her. As her immediate panic began to give way to a wider range of less pressing thoughts, and those reinforced the reasons her fears were baseless, Sophie's recent memories stirred and she considered new reasons for her presence in this place. Nothing seemed to be so terribly wrong with her body. She must be here because something else was wrong, then. Sophie cringed inside as she wandered past the other beds in the long room and peeked out the wooden door frame. There wasn't a door, but then the windows hadn't looked like they even had glass. Everything in the room had been so rustic. As for the outside, it was not so simple to define.

Sophie didn't know what to make of it. If she had been worried before about her reasons for finding herself here, she was now rather certain it was in her best interests, and not for the reasons she had thought up before. There was no such thing as any kind of hospital, any kind of city, any kind of  _world_  like the one right outside this door.

A wooden walkway passed the door in either direction and was secured by a tall railing opposite. It would not be easy to accidentally stumble over this, but there was enough space above and between the gaps for Sophie to make out more. The sprawling city beyond could be likened to any she knew, though the style differed too much for Sophie to reconcile her present location with any she had seen before. Buildings reached several stories tall and the streets were filled with vehicles, advertisements dominating the street sides just like the ones back home. Except that  there was no cement in these streets, no glass in any of the buildings, and wood was more common than metal. The streets were populated with people and beasts milling about industriously alongside small cars propelled without wheels, and the walls were not merely plastered with signs or screens, but flickered with their own light. The skies were not pierced with roaring white winged tubes, but shining black scaled fish. Old world bazaars, temples, palatial homes and open-air theatres contrasted sharply against modern neighbours and conveniences. Sophie leaned forward incrementally in awe, until an invisible bubble popped, and the audio returned to her world in full force. The unfamiliar sounds from creatures, languages, and sources she couldn't recognize were no more comforting than the strange quiet she had left, and Sophie reeled away from it only to find herself muffled again. This time, she wasn't so eager to explore that unknown outside the door.

Sophie jumped as the choice was taken from her, a gentle touch against her shoulder having come without warning in this soundless space. An older woman in white robes was appraising Sophie with a frown, curling another hand around Sophie's wrist and pressing something cold there. Sophie instinctively tried to pull away, but the older woman's tone was just as soft as her touch when she spoke. Sophie had the uncomfortable sensation of living in a poorly translated foreign film as the words mismatched the motions of this woman's mouth. "Be calm, you are among friends. You were found without your circall."

"Circle?" Sophie repeated, not understanding the meaning behind the words, how she could hear them, or even understand them when she hadn't heard anything that sounded like English outside.

"Cir- _call_." The woman emphasized the second syllable, lifting the hand from Sophie's shoulder to her forehead. Sophie pulled back and tried to swat the offending hand away, but it didn't stop the woman from acting or speaking. "Be still. There may be damage, I must check."

Damage. That word made Sophie stop. It aligned with what she had already been thinking, that she was seeing and hearing things. It was strangely soothing to believe that. If there was just something wrong, it might be fixed, after all. It seemed this woman was some kind of doctor or nurse. Sophie's hopes were let down when the doctor pulled her hand away to speak.

"Good. You seem healthy. Can you tell me where you are from? How did you end up in the street without a circall?" The doctor asked.

"...no. I mean... I don't know, so I can't tell you. I don't think I  _am_  healthy. I... my hearing is off, and this place... I'm seeing some weird things-"

"The silence ward? It is to keep patients from bothering one another while they wait for treatment. It's only effective in this room. What are you seeing that is bothering you?"

"The... everything's... impossible. Fish in the air, and... monsters." The hospital had a ward where people had to be silent? But they were talking right now. And how would you even enforce that? That... didn't't make sense. None of it did. The doctor laughed.

"Did you enter by wind ship, then? You must be from a very small village. The great lizards do not like to be called that, so please choose your words carefully. You must be very new, I guess. I will send a message to the travel agency, but do not worry. The hot air fish are normal and safe, they are ships like the one you used to get here, and the great lizards obey the same general laws as everyone else. They are not all as scary as they look, and will not hurt you. Now, please, what is your name?"

"Sophie?" This came out as a squeak. Either Sophie was worse off than she knew or could hope to fix, or something she could not begin to explain had happened and left her stranded in a place she wouldn't have believed existed.

"So Fee? Very good. Where are you from?"

Sophie felt time digging in its heels, slowing around her as it occurred to her that she didn't even know if she should answer with her home address or the name of her world. Would this woman know the difference? Would she think it was a joke? God, Sophie really hoped it was a joke.

"I'm... not in Canada anymore, am I?" It was slightly less crazy-sounding than asking if she was still on earth. But it was very likely she would actually get a telling answer, at least. Time hadn't stopped fighting to remain in place yet, and it was maddening.

"...You're all the way from the frozen north? And you don't remember leaving?" The doctor was frowning and meeting Sophie's eyes in a serious way she hadn't had since touching her patient's forehead. Sophie didn't know whether she wanted to be relieved or horrified that the name of her country was at least recognized, if being referred to by a terrible stereotype. She could get home, probably, which was good. On the other hand... there was no way a place like this could exist anywhere on her world. Sophie felt very much like a child as contradictions warred inside her.

"...I want to go home..."

"Don't be upset, So Fee. We will find the ship which brought you here and track your path backward until you find a place you know." The doctor recognized the need to reassure Sophie, at least, though her words were not very effective considering. The woman's hands were back on Sophie's shoulders, now guiding the patient back to the bed she had woken in. Not knowing what else to do, Sophie allowed herself to be steered and settled in without a fight. She accepted without thinking when she was offered food and something to read while she waited, and she was already two paragraphs in to the thin novel of poems before she even wondered if she should really be able to. Television had conditioned her to just go with the flow when others spoke her language, but how did the doctor know English, or that Sophie spoke it, let alone have a book on hand Sophie could read, if she hadn't even known where Sophie was from? Or were the other strange words she had briefly overheard just broken figments from some delusion, and she was still near enough to home that everyone would still of course speak the native language?

It was too much, and too crazy. Setting aside the book and forgetting about the food she had been promised, Sophie shut her eyes against the world. She needed to wake up. She never went to sleep if she could help it in case she was dreaming and would wake up, but this dream was too disorienting and felt too real. She needed to wake up now. Which meant she needed to sleep. She would deal with whatever she woke up to, and this would have been just one more cruel trick of the real world, but at least it would end, and everything could make sense again.


	2. Sophie 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After the shock of her arrival in a new world, Sophie decides to give this new life a chance.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Trimmed some fatty bits and fixed some sloppy errors.

When she woke, Sophie glimpsed her surroundings to be sure she had not returned home, then closed her eyes again. She didn't want to be interrupted while she thought. She needed some time to internalize the changes and information she was being confronted with before moving forward.

Sophie had been desperate to flee her old life. She hadn't exactly failed, but hadn't expected to end up in a new world, either. She might actually be crazy, but if that was so, she had no idea how to resist it and might as well embrace the fantasy. This world might be better than the one she had left behind, real or not. She had to know if it was better to stay or try to escape again first, which meant learning about this world. Until she was sure it was safe, Sophie would need to pretend she belonged. With that much settled, Sophie took a deep but shaky breath and opened her eyes again.

There were some different patients in the room with her now, but they were all still human. The doctor who had settled Sophie in was absent, but there was a man reading at her bedside. His hair was long but tied tightly back in an unruly bunch and the sides of his scalp were shaved down.His garb was much flashier than the doctor's had been, a cloak of deep red highlighted with stylized goldenrod feathers around the edges, the bright colours distracting from the earthen tones of the simpler garments hidden beneath. Everything looked as if it had been made by hand. The man was swimming in the folds of loose cloth, but it looked far more comfortable than the thin pastel gown Sophie had woken in twice now. Cold and self-conscious, Sophie scooped the equally thin blanket around her closer as she sat up. The motion drew the man's attention, and he beamed with misplaced enthusiasm.   

"So Fee. I am glad you are awake." That wrong-words effect was throwing Sophie off again, so she looked away from the man's mouth and tried to focus on his eyes alone. He sounded too cheery for meeting someone he didn't even know, and his proximity to her when she was wearing so little made her very uncomfortable. "I am travel guide Lo."

Ah. Now the chipper attitude made sense. This would be the person who was supposed to help her get to a home she would probably never see again, even if it existed here. He should, however, be able to tell her plenty about where she was. He was a  _travel_  guide, after all. He was probably used to dealing with tourists.

"Yeah, hi. I'm actually really lost, and I just hoped you could tell me about where I am." Sophie interrupted before he could jump into whatever plan it was they had already made for her. There would be little point to that, and Sophie would much rather get this information.

"Yes! The healer told me that you had forgotten some things. You want to know about the city?" The already sugary guide increased his fervour by another notch. That was one thing the worlds had in common that Sophie didn't like, then. Salesmen. This world was making a terrible first impression. "What do you want to know?"

"A name might be a good place to start. Then a little about what it's known for, maybe?"

Lo's cheer lifted in a way Sophie recognized as a pitch. "You find yourself in the city of sky sand. The only flying city! We are a hub of trade in our corner of the world. You can trade just about anything in the bazaar. We are also the home of many people who only live in the desert areas! The snake-folk, great lizards, and quill-backs are especially uncommon outside the sky sand! Many places where their traditions thrive are kept throughout the city."

A flying city filled with shopping and monsters. Great.

"How does the city fly?" Sophie kept her follow-up vague. If this city was the only one, then even regular tourists should wonder about this sometimes. The agency representative lifted his chin and pushed out his chest, clearly proud of the accomplishments of his home even if the question was a common one.

"It is the combination of our city's base and the desert sands that allow us to move an entire city at once with the forces of magic."

Sophie had no idea what the man was talking about, and had been considering this question a lost cause as far as gathering information subtly went, but then the word magic came up, and she forgot to care about subtlety. "The city is magical?"

Fortunately, based on the laughter she got as her first answer, Lo thought her stupid rather than strange. Which was lucky, because she had always believed that of herself, too. Which meant she wouldn't have to pretend or anything to get away with it. Sophie had been in this situation often enough to know to wait it out, and when the laughter stopped Lo told her what she'd hoped to hear.

"No, the city is not magic, it is the magi's magic that powers the runes which keep the city afloat. You have come to the right place if you have an interest." Lo didn't hide his amusement since Sophie wasn't hiding her wonder and excitement. "Did you come to sky sand to apprentice, then? What a shame you lost your circall..."

Uh oh. There was that word again. The idea of apprenticeship as a possibility had been offered up as if it were a gift that fate were using to tempt her to stay, but she didn't like what that bit about her non-existent lost circall implied. She didn't even know what that was, but she knew she hadn't had one on her when she... she hadn't had  _anything_  on her, except her clothes, before coming here. Now she didn't even have  _those_. This circall kept coming up, so it must be important, but she probably couldn't ask about it directly or why she needed it to practice magic without arousing suspicion. Desperately, Sophie tried to find a way around asking the stupid questions. This was not a new process for her. Luckily, an answer had somewhat been provided for her. She was  _all the way_  from the 'frozen north'. Funny how that description lined up between her own home land and a similar place in this world, but it gave her the advantage of an excuse for at least some ignorance. Not enough to explain why she didn't know about things as common here as the circall or magic seemed to be, but maybe enough to sneakily get what she needed.

"Oh. I think maybe things are a little different here from the way they work where I come from. I need a circall to get apprenticed?" Sophie had thought the question had sounded pretty innocent, but for the first time Lo's pleasant working facade cracked a little. He looked shocked. She couldn't have given away so much, could she?

"I'm from Canada." She hastily added, "No idea how I got this far, either. Everything's very different. You must have had tourists from really far away, right? Couldn't you give me an idea of what to expect?"

Sophie wasn't sure how much the words helped, but at least the guide's expression shifted from one of outright disbelief to one of careful contemplation. "Where?"

Oh shit. "I... already said, from Canada."

"Yes. We have had visitors from the frozen north before, but their ways were the same as ours. If there are places out there that don't follow basic practice, we should keep record of it, for future visitors." The principle was sound, but Lo seemed to be interested for more than merely business reasons. Sophie was in it now.

"Just a... small place, really. You've probably never heard of it." She tried to think of a small town back home, only to realize that would mean nothing here. Any place she mentioned could be the name of a big or small city, or none at all. Would he know if she just made one up? She really should have paid more attention in geography class...! "Thunder Bay?"

Lo frowned. It had been the first thing she thought of, she couldn't help it if it was the wrong answer! She didn't even know anything about the place besides it's name. Which apparently was the problem. "A bay of thunder? In the region of snow?"

Now she knew she was in trouble, but what could Sophie do but dig herself deeper? She couldn't say for sure that the Canada here didn't have year-round snowstorms, so she couldn't use the usual rebuttal that Canada wasn't really snowy all year round. "It's just a name. It doesn't mean that's what the weather is like."

"Oh. Sorry. I had never heard of the place. What an odd name to choose..." Finally, some luck!

"Yeah, well, I dunno why they chose that name, I just live there, haha! So, about this apprenticeship stuff..."

"Oh! Yes, sorry again. Well, if you really don't know about it, I should catch you up. To apprentice under the science mages, you'll need to have passed the mage licensing exam, have at least three years of public service recorded, and at least two years of experience with both alchemy and a related form of practical magic, and at least four years of experience practicing physical science or proof you completed a related program from a licensed school."

Sophie's jaw dropped. That was a lot of things she didn't have any of. It took her brain a few moments of stunned silence to thaw and play back the information until she noticed she wasn't out of luck just yet. If there was an exam for licensing magic, there had to be a school for it, and this apprenticeship Lo was talking about only referred to  _science_  mages. Others would probably be easier!

"It seems that may be out of your range, though. You are young, there is still time to learn and return. Don't get too upset." Lo reassured, obviously picking up on Sophie's initial mood and trying to soften the blow. "Once your circall is found, I'm sure you'll be able to arrange to fill those gaps in your abilities, if you are still determined to follow through with your plan."

Sophie smiled and pretended that this future was as hopeful as Lo made it sound, but was already secretly moving on to the next mental road block the conversation had led her to. She was hesitant to press the matter further, but this hadn't at all answered her question. "I could do those things without my circall, couldn't I?"

Lo did not become suspicious, but the look he gave Sophie suggested she had still said something very foolish without realizing it. The idea she had suggested seemed to actually  _frighten_  her helpful tour guide. It wasn't a good sign for her future hopes of magic use. If this circall she was sure she had never had wasn't found, she might not ever be able to practice magic?

"Really, I know things may look dark in a new place without your circall, but I don't think it is so bad... we have very good police. I am sure they will find your circall before long."

"But they might not. And I want to be prepared for any way this could turn out, so. What would that involve? What would I do without my circall?"

Pained and pale, Lo reluctantly considered the possibility. Sophie waited while he thought, clenching her fists and even tightly curling her toes as the tension in her rose. There was a way. There had to be a way for her to practice magic, and she would do whatever it took. She was already preparing for all manner of difficulties and extended efforts - when Lo's answer took her by surprise, and pleasantly so. "Without your circall, you would have to rely on your new one, and start from the beginning. You would have no record of your past beyond when you were found. You would receive only the most basic help, and be expected to work hard to make up your cost of living, in the simplest jobs, until you could earn enough to take an employment exam for a better one. Even then, you will start at the bottom."

She would be back in manual labour or some other equally terrible job, but she'd be able to earn her way toward better things. She could use this new start in life to excuse knowing nothing, pretending like she needed to go through it all again. It was the perfect, ready-made alibi for her. This didn't address how she would approach learning magic, but more important was what she could learn from the rest of what Lo had said. She wouldn't be tossed into the street like a beggar, which was already a great leg up on what she had half expected, but the way Lo had suggested she use her  _new_  circall made it sound as if she already had a replacement. Somehow, a circall represented the record of her life she should have had. She didn't exactly think everybody around here kept a resume on them at all times, though. Maybe it wasn't on her, but saved somewhere, like a computer file. But then, how would it be lost, stolen, or recovered for that matter? She'd have to give that one more thought before she could ask about it.

"...how long would it take me to get back to learning magic?"

"For anything new, it depends on how far along you were. You'd need to prove your basic knowledge first, and they wouldn't let you do that without some practical experience, so... at least... three months? That should be enough to squeeze in the extra hours of practice you would need. If you need to brush up on your basics, it would be a little longer, but luckily basic education in sky sand is free. Anything more advanced will mean putting in more hours, though. Just like the first time around. Nothing around here will come without experience and skill. Are you sure you want to try that path, Fee?"

Sophie was a little stunned at the end, blinking up at Lo in confusion. Were social customs different here? Were they considered friendly enough for nicknames already, or had he just forgotten how to properly say her name? "It's  _Sophie_ , actually, but I think-"

"No, Fee. If you do this, you will lose any title you gained with your old circall. You don't get to keep anything you can't prove. You will just go by your given name."

Sophie had the urge to insist that Sophie  _was_  her given name, but held her silence instead. Lo thought part of her name was a title? Sophie had just thought that he and the doctor had been having difficult pronouncing her name. That it had just been unusual for this place. As it turned out, they had been saying it that way on purpose, thinking it meant something. What did they think it meant, though?

"It is easy to forget how much we depend on our circalls for things we take for granted. Take a little time to think about it before you make your choice. I'll go see if I can fetch you something warmer, and maybe a little something to eat and drink. Get some rest for now and let it sink in." Lo took the silence as Sophie accepting his words, and excused himself. Sophie hadn't realized she had started shivering, but now that she had the time to catalogue everything in peace she realized she was not just cold but thirsty and emotionally overwhelmed. This was so much harder than she had realized it would be.

Well, she had at least gleaned a bit of important information from this conversation. Circalls were important, and seemed to be linked to a person's work, education, and name. Possibly more. She would have to make sure she clarified what a circall  _was_  soon, as delicately as possible. She might be able to learn magic here. If not spells, then she should be able to try her hand at alchemy still. That was just chemistry basically, right? Not that she had been too good in her science classes, but it would  _have_  to be easier when it all wasn't so  _dull_ , right? Finally, it seemed like she was in a flying city full of monsters that wasn't going to let her just become a beggar on the street. If nothing else, this world might just not be as terrible as back home.


	3. Sophie 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The mysterious circall is revealed and Sophie is given her first glimpse of just how important and useful the tool really is, and just how much she was taking for granted in this world that may not be so simple.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> More general writing improvements, no content changes.

Lo was not the first visitor to check in on Sophie. A nurse left her with some food and water, then the doctor who had settled Sophie in checked in. The doctor handled a few other patients first, and this time Sophie recognized the way the patients relaxed under her touch for the magic it was. Lo had made magic seem fairly common to study, so it made sense for a doctor to be able to heal. It would practically be mandatory for the position. It didn't take long for Sophie's turn to arrive.

"Ah! So Fee. You're looking better. I've been told you're considering rebirth?" Sophie was stunned a moment, and the doctor doubted her information, "I didn't think so. It's not an option many take if they can help it. It makes more sense to wait and see if your old circall can be found-"

"No." Much as it scared Sophie to interrupt someone while they spoke, her fear of the alternative was stronger. Whatever this 'rebirth' entailed, it was better than digging herself a deeper hole. "Rebirth... is it bad?"

"Well..." The doctor frowned, but did not seem to fear the idea of rebirth. "It isn't easy, and most don't  _choose_  it, but people do it when they need to. If that's what you want, it will be more useful to deal with a counselor than a travel guide. Are you sure you want to start over from scratch?"

"Yes." There was more certainty in Sophie over that one idea than in anything else in her life right now, which was admittedly still not confident, but she at least held her voice firm. It was clearer now that rebirth just meant starting a new life, and it seemed obvious in hindsight, of course. "I was confused before, but I don't want to go back there. I'll deal with my life here and now."

"Then hello, Fee. It is good to meet you. I am healer Si." The doctor - or healer, apparently - smiled for Sophie and held her arms out as if to accept a hug. Uncertain how to proceed, Sophie just smiled back. She could still use cultural differences as an excuse for something like this, right? It was so terribly uncomfortable, and healer Si already clearly thought she was mental, but she couldn't help what she didn't know!

"Um, about that. My name, it really is  _Sophie_. One word, not a title."

"Huh? What a strange name." The healer's feelings still didn't leak into her tone, but with the face Si made, it didn't need to. "It's very rude. Wherever you're from, don't you have a shorter one for proper use? We can't register such a name in a circall."

It couldn't be registered? It was rude? Si had seemed nice enough before, but maybe her skin was actually thin, to be bothered by something as simple as a name. That was fine... Sophie had lots of practice feigning positivity and putting her head down. It just made her feel ill to be doing so again. 

"What would be better?"

"Well, just So would be fine, or Fee. You should know this. Wasn't it explained  when you got your first circall, or did you think it was just a funny tradition? Northern habits are strange. Did you copy it from the wild people?"

There was a lot of information there, but most of it was only hinted to in context. Lo, Si, So, Fee. The pattern seemed to be length, and even if she were wrong it was the closest rule Sophie could figure. It seemed like a poor system. In her own world, surnames were used to distinguish between people with the same first name, but there couldn't be many combinations with such short names. Anyway, names like So, Fee, or even Lo and Si sounded too odd to imagine calling herself! How would she recognize herself being called otherwise, though? When the thought that answered her question came to her, Sophie grimaced.

"Um... what about you? Would that work?"

"Tion?" What on earth? Where had the healer gotten that sound from? It wasn't even a word! Not to mention Si still looked very annoyed with the suggestion.

"Uh... no, You. You know, like 'you are'?"

Both women were watching each other, unbalanced by the other's comments. This time, Sophie was too lost to even resist when Si placed hands on her forehead and then ears. Was Si checking for things like a doctor would, or trying t heal Sophie? She had no way of knowing, but she didn't feel any different at the touch. Then Si lifted her patient's arm, and Sophie's attention snapped into focus again.

Sophie had always worn a watch in her other life. She had not even thought of the weight around her wrist since the healer had touched her yesterday. Sophie had been so caught up in her emotions that she had forgotten it was put there. Now that Si had brought it to her attention by examining it, Sophie looked more closely at the thick translucent bracelet. It was made of many small prisms strung together, each side of each prism etched with symbols inside that appeared and disappeared as if being written and erased, over and over.

Sophie touched a prism of the bracelet, curiosity helpless when confronted with something she didn't even know how to test in order to begin to understand it. A sense of loss briefly overcame Sophie, but it was gone just as quickly. It had felt as if, for just a second, Sophie had lost all memory of her family. Sophie hesitated but touched the prism again, growing familiarity making the sensation less shocking. She expected relief from painful memories, but instead the longing to fill a hollow inside was just as bad. So much for an easy way out of that particular struggle. While she held the bracelet, she had even forgotten there was anything to remember. It had been as if she really hadn't ever known her family. She instinctively held the wrist with the bracelet a little further away and watched it with suspicion.

"Fee?" Sophie glanced back up at the healer, realizing belatedly that the name was referring to her again, and by Si's expression, it had probably been used more than once.

"Huh? I mean, yes?"

"Is something wrong? Everything seems to be in order, but you seem distracted. Confused."

"Oh. Sorry, I'm fine, I was just... this is very different from the way my circall worked. Maybe it was just very old, and that is why everything is so different for me..."

"...I see. I can tell your counselor you need to brush up on your circall use." Si didn't sound convinced, but she was letting Sophie make her own choices by the look of things. That was good. If Sophie couldn't move forward, she'd just go crazy all over again. Besides, she finally had an idea what a circall was, if not how it worked. One thing at a time. She was starting to understand things. She had to keep pretending and hold her head above water.

"Please. It may be best to just cover everything. To make sure I don't miss anything."

"...okay. I will contact a counsellor and pass on your request. For now, if you feel well, I will give you my contact's business address. Your travel guide can take you before they leave. The counselor will know your needs by time you arrive." The healer scribbled a note onto a pad of paper and Sophie looked down only to be horribly disappointed.

"This is... I can't read this."

"Ah, yes. This circall is a simple model. It translates print and speech just fine, but it won't recognize-" Facts belatedly snapped into place for Sophie. The circall was translating speech. In real time, probably. Some things were bound to get lost in translation, which explained a number of confusing moments. She felt like an idiot for missing the connection between the weird dislocation between mouth and words she had been seeing and the fact that she understood everyone despite being in a whole other world. Now it made sense. It was magic, if somewhat limited magic, and she could have figured it out earlier if she had just been paying attention! If she wasn't more vigilant, how would she keep up in this world? Not only that, but she had missed what Si was saying during this revelation. Shit! Sophie hoped the missing pieces weren't too significant to the message. "-so just give that to your guide."

"Thank you." Although the healer's smile was bright again at Sophie's response, Si immediately left after giving the direction, and Sophie had a feeling that the other woman had just wanted to get rid of her. What a terrible first impression, and a worse first day. Sophie really hoped it would come to an end soon and give her a fresh start after meeting this counselor person.

It would be another long wait before the guide returned to check on Sophie, with another meal in between and another offer of reading material which Sophie had accepted hopefully. If her circall translated text like speech, as Si and her last reading session had suggested was the case, she might be able to learn something without drawing attention to herself. Sophie even requested something educational. Unfortunately, she ended up with a history book that talked about a whole lot of things she didn't understand. Things that could have been races, nations, places, people, skills, technology, even time periods she had no way of recognizing, all ran together with only a few words between that she could actually make sense of.

So much for that hope. Just when she had thought she had a breakthrough, she found more obstacles. The translation seemed useless without cultural context. Like trying to find a word in the dictionary with no idea how it was spelled. How could she find out what any of these words were without any clues?  Grudgingly, Sophie took advantage of an earlier mistake. There were gaps in her understanding, but if she pieced them together they could be filled more easily. She would start by figuring out this matter of names.

Lo returned before Sophie's thoughts could really start to spiral downward. Thank goodness. Sophie hurried to relay the directions the doctor had given, and Lo was happy enough to aid his client, although he advised she dress properly first. She didn't even have to ask before he offered to take her to the storage area where some generic clothing might be provided in her size, and Sophie thanked the gods she didn't believe in that at least that much wouldn't be up to her to figure out. Chances were that if she had needed to, she would have ended up roaming the city in the hospital gown they'd given her. Instead, she fumbled around until the many clasps, buttons, and tied lengths of fabric came together on her new outfit and looked herself over in a mirror. She thought she looked presentable, at least, even if Lo was more dubious on the matter. He didn't try to change Sophie's mind, opting to get their journey started as immediately as possible, which relieved Sophie to no end. There was something about actually  _going_  somewhere that solidified the sense of progress, however small or fleeting.


	4. Sophie 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sophie takes her first steps into a new life.

The streets were even more overwhelming in person than they had been at a distance. It was one thing to know she was in a world of monsters, but actually being surrounded on all sides by them and trying to keep a distance from them brought the real terror of the situation into reality for Sophie. The foreign woman was trying her best to stay as close as possible to Lo without clinging or showing exactly how she felt. It was not an easy task, and Sophie was certain she was failing. The eyes that seemed to follow her upon noticing her told her as much. Hell, she'd have accepted that more readily if it weren't for the eyeless ones that somehow seemed to track her movement anyway. Much as she could fake, there was no way to disperse the shaking that left Sophie with as she scuttled along in her guide's wake.

At first she had mostly just noticed the bigger ones, the beasts that didn't even look down and were in some cases herded along by riders. Sophie did not stop to wonder how many with riders were intelligent or how many without were not. It was making her tense enough just feeling the quake in earth and air as they passed by heedless of her. They could squash her like a bug, and she wouldn't have gotten over this feeling if something else hadn't gotten very upset with her for exactly the same thing.

Sophie had recoiled and shouted in fear at the sound and feeling of something both hard and soft underfoot crunching and the resulting shrill grinding sound as the little beast snapped at her retreating feet. If a spider the size of a cat were made of thick, folded blades and had no body to join its legs, it might have looked something like what Sophie had unwittingly enraged. Yet Lo had noticed the commotion and drawn out a handful of something from within the many folds of his cloak and thrown them down in front of the monster as one might scatter treats to distract an excited dog with a muttered word she didn't know. Sophie didn't dare to get close enough to find out what he had dropped, but the metal bug was no longer interested in her, and that was how her attention had begun to wander, and why she had become so nervous.

It seemed there were few creatures in this place besides her own kind which were not in some way either frightening or disgusting to Sophie, which felt wrong somehow. With the introduction of magic, her mind had begun to wander to the fantasy books of her world, filled with handsome elves, fae, and other fairly  _human_  races. Although she had seen some that reminded her of animals, most of the alien races Sophie had seen so far did not move about on two legs and have arms and hands like a human as she had expected. Instead, she had seen many with packs on their backs like mules to carry goods they could reach with long necks, or carried between their teeth. Some in the market sections even seemed to be  _swallowing and regurgitating_  the goods they traded in, and likewise most shopkeepers acted as if this sort of thing were commonplace for their customers.

Many of the exchanges were baffling, as well. While currency was used in some cases, others would involve barter, including the exchange of bodily parts like teeth, scales, hair, bottles and jars of slime or other trimmings, and even a number where nothing visible traded hands, but Sophie thought might involve magic. She had no idea how the merchants kept track of all these things. Especially among the colourful and shifting landscape that was constant throughout the city. Sophie could understand some of the words she saw that scrolled, flashed, glowed, blinked, or even greeted Lo by name as he came close, but there were at least as many and more that meant nothing to her as she passed by them. These weren't just written on billboards or walls, either. Some flew through the air, writing like sparklers, and others activated underfoot or literally rearranged the structure of the street or nearby buildings to attract attention.

Despite herself, and the many outside influences which were squeezing her tight with panic, Sophie drew hope from these over-the-top advertisements. Sure, they would grow annoying with time she was sure, but meanwhile... magic was abundant. So much so that anybody and everybody was just throwing it around. She had been beginning to wonder if she even could use magic, since she wasn't from this world, but again she was reminded that even if she couldn't, it was so readily available that maybe it wouldn't even matter. As long as she could use it, even if it wasn't hers, it would be fine.

Between the monsters and magic, Sophie saw everything and nothing the city had to offer before arriving at her destination. The loud, gaudy streets had been silenced behind them as the doors shut, leaving Sophie in a place that almost made her want to laugh. It was just like an office back home, with a lot of desks at a front counter and some halls leading back to private rooms, and chairs stationed for those who had just arrived to wait in for attention. She could almost forget she wasn't back in her own world. Some of Sophie's tension leaked away with the comfort of familiarity, even if the sight didn't usually have good connotations. Just like how she had first responded to thinking she was deaf, some of Sophie's reactions were just more instinctive than the smothering feeling which had brought her here.

"Here you are, Fee! This is my last task with you, so please ask any questions you have left for me now. Otherwise, someone here should be waiting for you."

Oh. Oh, no. Sophie had completely forgotten. How would she recognize, or be recognized by, the person she was here to meet? She had told Lo what the healer had said to her, but that meant he didn't actually know more than she did about this. She had screwed up again! She couldn't ask him to take her back, either. He had just said he was supposed to be finished! She was sure her panic was showing, but at least it wouldn't look odd. After all, she had been unable to hide it all the way here, and it hadn't had much chance to fade before rising up again. Lo hadn't said anything, at least, but Sophie was sure she was just digging a deeper hole and embarrassing herself as she went here, so she smiled without any real feeling and told Lo she could handle it, since in reality what she could not handle right now was him watching her, waiting for her to make a fool of herself again.

When he was gone, Sophie collapsed into a seat and clenched her hands in her lap, just trying very hard not to make a scene by burying her face in her hands, tucking her legs up to her chest, and crying. It was too much. Dealing with a whole world of new things was too much to take on at once, and she was going to fail because she had been too overeager, too naive, too entranced by the promise of something that she still hadn't even really learned the first thing about. She should just stop. She could walk back out of here, nobody would notice, find one of those really big things, and just move into place when it was about to take another step-

"Sophie?"

Sophie jolted at the sound of her name and looked around for the source of the voice which had called her name as if it knew the right way to pronounce it for once. She almost expected to find someone she knew, or someone in clothes from her own world, standing there and waiting impatiently for her to reply. Instead, she found a new reason to bury her face in her hands. And maybe the rest of herself in a very dark hole.

The man in front of Sophie was smiling so sweetly she thought she could even taste it in the air. His eyes were gentle, his stance welcoming and unimposing even though he towered over Sophie in height, his skin healthy and vibrant, and his hair fell in neat, dark curls around his shoulders, which only made the silver-white  _wings_  folded at his back stand out even more. Sophie stared. She knew the world had magic, but with all the unexpected clutter and strange sights outside, she never would have guessed an angel waited inside to offer her his hand. One which she was staring right past to admire the man's beauty. Very little of which was hidden by the close cut of what seemed to be a skirt, or the cloak that barely clung to his shoulders, both a pale grey which was easily ignored even before being compared to the man clad in them. Well, at least one piece of her fantasy worlds seemed to have come true. The angel laughed at her continued attentiveness, and decided to try again.

"You must be Sophie. My name is Den counselor Ine. You can call me Ine for now. Healer Si asked me to help you. She said your case was special."

There was her name again, perfect and wonderful coming from her angel. It was the only word that matched the motions of his mouth as he spoke, and it was strangely comforting to see that. Ine. It was a funny name for an angel, wasn't it? She wasn't sure about what some of those other words meant, either. It was her 'case' that made Sophie self-conscious again, though. It was one thing for a stranger to know about her situation, and another for an actual angel to think she was incompetent. Sophie wanted to cry again, or do something more drastic, but the angel was watching her, and she had no escape. So she took the hand still being held out to her and shook it. The angel seemed confused. She cut off the shake early. Had... that not been why he had offered it? The angel's eyes flicked to the sides, then back to Sophie, and he lowered himself onto one knee so that the two of them were nearly face to face. Sophie felt as if she were the focus of a camera, or at the center of a stage suddenly.

"Sophie, relax. I am here to help you. I already know that you are not familiar with the way we do things, it's not a problem. Come back with me to my office, and we can begin to fix that." Right, her foreigner status had followed Sophie here. She could afford to make a few small mistakes, thank goodness. This time, when the angel offered his hand, he didn't leave it out for her to take, but slipped his fingers under hers slowly and gave a gentle tug, and Sophie felt silly for her previous misunderstanding. Ine held her hand and took her back along one of the halls past others who might have been looking. She couldn't tell, because Ine had blocked her view and probably theirs by carefully arranging his wings and keeping the two of them against the wall until he reached across Sophie to open a door and gesture her in.

Just as ashamed of having to be taken by the hand like a child as she was reluctant to let go of the reassuring hand which had steered her safely, Sophie paused before a tiny nudge against her shoulder tipped the balance in favour of action. Not that it was much of an action. The room was small and the seat very near to the door, both having the same bland style as the waiting room she had just left. The angel followed Sophie in and sealed the door behind him, then settled onto a chair across from Sophie, locking onto her with a fascinated gaze. There was no desk between them as Sophie had expected, although there were cabinets along the walls, and a table at Ine's side. 

"Now that it is just the two of us, do you feel safe speaking? This will be difficult otherwise."

A new blush rose to Sophie's cheeks. She'd stayed mute in her nervousness, and the angel had noticed. That had to be remedied immediately, before she looked any more pathetic to him. "I can speak! I just, um, I'm really new to all of this, so I didn't know what to say."

"Ah, good. You have a nice voice, please use it without holding back. Why don't you start by telling me about your plans. Do you want to stay in our city, and how long for?"

"Yes. I mean, I think. I don't know how long. Just until I learn some magic, maybe? I was told that would take a while, if I am starting out with a new circall. Does that sound right to you?" He was praising her to get her to open up more. She must really seem hopeless. She had to try extra hard to be direct and confident, or act that way at least. As much as she could when she knew nothing.

"Well, that depends. What kind of magic, and what are you trying to learn? How do you learn best?"

"Uh." That had not been nearly as straightforward as Lo had made this seem. It also opened up a vulnerability in her cover story which she couldn't hide well. "I don't actually know. I'm not picky, though, I'll learn whatever I can, and however I can."

Ine frowned. Sophie decided that expression should not be allowed on the angel's face at all costs. Not just because it squeezed her heart in her chest to see it, but because she didn't want to be the one causing it. The angel chose his next words slowly and softly.

"You have not found your atna yet?"

Atna? Shit, more things she didn't know! Sophie wanted to squeeze down into a ball and keep shrinking until she disappeared.

"Sophie. Relax." 

The words were soothing but made the pain of the situation worse. He could tell, and she was too obvious, of course such a lame cover would never work, what had she been thinking, how could she get out of this mess, how would she-

"If you don't know what type of magic you have yet, we can do that right now. It's no trouble." 

Sophie wanted to weep, and she wasn't sure whether it was out of relief, shame, or happiness. She had tried mostly to avoid the possibility that she wouldn't be able to use the magic of this world, or that she might have to be born with it, but there it was. Ine expected her to have magic without even knowing it, which seemed unlikely if it was something you could learn from nothing. Still, even if she didn't have any magic now, she could at least move forward with that. Even if she couldn't learn magic, she would at least know and could end this miserable excuse for a journey before she embarrassed herself further.

"Please." Sophie bit back the emotion, but it still spilled out with the word, which was why she had only chosen one. She had ducked her head and refused to meet Ine's eyes in case she really had started crying. She didn't want to give the wrong impression. The lack of immediate response made Sophie tremble. What if Ine changed his mind, decided she was unfit to do this, to use magic at all? Had he even heard her? She didn't think she could bring herself to say it again, but she couldn't just sit here in awkward silence. Could he?

Apparently not. The angel took her hand in his again, and she was sure if she cried now she might as well die right there. He spun one of the prisms on her circall and guided her free hand to it, and for a second Sophie panicked as she recalled the awful empty feeling the last time she had touched that thing, but when her fingers brushed over the polished surface, all of the pain, fear, and uncertainty washed away.

This prism was nothing like the other had been. In a wave that swept up her arm and crashed over her body, Sophie felt  _strong._ Not the kind of strength she pretended at, not like weightlifters, but a kind of energy beneath her skin. Like she was fresh from a light meal, warm-up and shower all at once, leaving her revitalized. She had always known she felt tired all the time, but it wasn't until she actually had energy to burn that Sophie realized how drained she had become. After the first dose, she dove into the sensation head first, closing her hand tightly around her circall. It was like a drug, but felt more natural than any drug she'd ever known or even heard of. 

When Ine's thumb wiped a tear from her cheek, Sophie realized she had been sobbing. Even so, he was smiling at her, and somewhere along the way, she had ended up in his arms, being tenderly held.

"This  _was_  your first time, then. It can be overwhelming, and more so as we get older without knowing our atna. I am glad yours is good for you."

Sophie didn't pull away or feel disgusted with herself as Ine cleaned away more of the tears on her face. She didn't try to pull away or hide how she felt. It was a surprising thing, to end up in a stranger's lap. With the feeling she was enduring now, she began to wonder if he might have drugged her and meant to take advantage, but just as quickly other parts of her mind were building their own theories. His body language didn't read as predatory, even in this situation. These effects didn't actually make resistance difficult or obscure her options. There were too many pieces that didn't line up again. She was missing something, and this time her mind was clear and focused enough to see it right away. 

He'd used that word again. Atna. Context was what kept tripping her up. Atna... it was something to do with her magic. With knowing what it was. Ine was implying she had magic? Sophie choked as emotions rolled over her in a chaotic jumble again. They were not so hard to pick apart this time, but there were so many. She didn't speak right away, working her way through them all and figuring out what she  _needed_  to say, needed to  _know_.

"That means... that was magic? What I felt just now?"

Ine's eyes crinkled around the corners when he smiled. He didn't seem to think anything of touching her, but then she had noticed that most people she had been around so far didn't really seem to understand physical boundaries. It felt like dealing with extended family. They were overly affectionate despite Sophie not really knowing them, just that they were connected somehow. He held out his hand, palm up, just out of reach of her own.

"Yes. I could take a look, if you're not sure which kind it is? Once you know your atna, you can choose your study path and style."

Sophie trembled, staring at the palm. Even with her fingers curled around her circall to hold on to that lingering clarity, it took her a moment to realize she was meant to let him take a look at it. She reluctantly released the bracelet, but found to her astonishment that the feeling didn't immediately disperse this time. Ine only needed to hold the prism in his own fingers again for a moment before his warmth toward her seemed to expand, and he met her eyes without letting go of her wrist.  
  
 "Congratulations, Sophie. You have a life atna."


	5. Ine 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sophie is not the only one on a journey of discovery.

"I have a patient that I believe would benefit from your discretion and care, Jun Den Par Ine."

Ine sighed softly, mentally preparing himself for what could quite possible be a very difficult case. "Ack Si. How wonderful to hear from you. Could you try to call less about business? It's disheartening always being contacted by such a beautiful woman only to be given more work."

"I believe she may be a lostling, but I have no idea how she came to be in the city. I've recorded her as a victim of robbery, but she showed up without clothing, no circall, no idea where she was, and there seems to be a cultural gap even the base model circall cannot bridge."  
  
There was no breaking the healer from her tirades when she got going, so Ine just leaned back in his seat and listened. It was interesting, but could it really be a lostling? It had been a while since any had made it past the barriers, and they were generally pretty dangerous. If this really was one of those creatures, then Ine couldn't imagine he could offer any assistance with it. "I thought you valued my skills, but you were really just trying to work me to death after all?"

"She's very upset, Ine. It's strange, she doesn't exhibit any signs of violence, only fear and confusion, but she asked to be reborn and reintegrated without hesitation. She even seemed excited by the prospect." Ine might have suggested it was because she was a criminal seeking a new life, but those types didn't usually turn around so easily and when they did, it wasn't without signs in their behavior of their previous lives. For this supposed lostling to be showing signs of fear rather than hostility might suggest running from a self-imposed danger.  
  
"You're not worried about the risk taking on this client might pose to my own business, I see."

"I told you, Den Par Ine, she is not dangerous."  
  
"That doesn't mean assisting her won't bring associated risks. Even if you are right, and she is a lostling who is acting with civility, extending my services to such a person could endanger other clients and employees. I wouldn't be a responsible Jun to accept such a duty without reasonable cause." Ine gave Si some time to consider his claim, and it was clear she was taking it. There was a pause in the conversation while Si made her choices.

"Then I will compensate any losses and take personal responsibility. As Ack, I assert my authority in this matter. This client requires thorough integration and education. Please use all professional courtesy, Den Par Ine, and quickly register her." This lostling wasn't even registered?! Well, of course a lostling wouldn't be registered, but Ine didn't really believe it yet, and would have thought someone as attentive as Trn Ack Si would have at least registered the woman already even if she were a lostling!

"Why haven't you registered her yourself?"

"Oh, that? The lostling says her name is SoFee, and when I tried to help her decide on a regulated name, she just said to call her 'you'! Imagine having such a sad name, even if it fit regulations! I didn't want to spook her by letting her know I suspected her origins, and you shouldn't either until you can gain her trust, but how else was I supposed to naturally let her know about regulations? That sort of thing is less suspicious from the Par, though." Hah! This 'lostling' had broken through Trn Si's shell! The woman was always so professional, but here was proof she was really invested in this client. She'd deviated a lot from the expected procedures. Well, he couldn't really refuse Si, even if he could refuse her Trn side. Another soul-deep sigh later, Ine resigned himself to the position.

"Very well, then. I will formally accept this case. Send over this 'Sophie'."

"Oh? That's how you say it? Too strange."  
  
"If she's really a lostling, I'm sure it is. Their names are all messy like that. I heard about one once whose name was 'Alexandria'!"

"No way! That's way too much! Well, anyway, I already sent her over. Keep an eye out for her. She should be in our replacement robes when she arrives." Typical. Si didn't wait to act unless she wasn't certain. Even with a case like this, she was still certain. In other words, Si wasn't the kind of person to hesitate. He would complain, but really she was rarely wrong, and even then made things work, so there was no use. 

"Thank you, I will." The static crackle was soft but clear, notifying Ine that Si was in fact no longer in contact. Stretching and bouncing to his feet, Ine didn't even bother to contain his magic, which manifested his excitement by sprouting feathery wings from his back. He gave them an impatient shake and folded them to his back to keep them from bumping into his co-workers. However casual he might have been with Si, he had to still take his job seriously, and so he had been reluctant, but really the lostlings fascinated Ine like few others. No doubt this was why Si had chosen him. Other Den might be just as effective, but not as considerate of such a client, and it might end poorly all around. Ine's curiosity would overwhelm his biased expectations, though. He knew better than to allow the image of a group in his own mind to obscure their reality, after all.

~~*~~

Sophie's eyes became distant as her focus turned inward and the resonance brought her face to face with her atna. The awe of recognizing herself transitioned into confidence. Her head lifted, back straightened, breathing deepened, tension dispersed. But then she began to shake and cry. There were no doubts left for Ine now. The shifter dropped to his knees and scooped Sophie into his embrace, wiping away one tear after another. A late resonance could be devastating, and physical reassurance was a regular practice to ease the process. 

When Sophie returned to the moment, she clung to the circall and her skin warmed beneath Ine's touch. The change in positions might be disorienting and frightening to her, so Ine tried to get ahead of further misunderstandings. Returning to his gentle smile, he explained himself as calmly as he could.

"The first touch of your atna can be overwhelming, especially for those who have been without it for a long time. Luckily, the revelation doesn't seem to have been too painful."

To pull away now would suggest Ine had been doing something wrong, so he continued to coddle the younger woman a little longer, and was relieved when she not only didn't resist, but seemed to take the new touch for granted.

"That was magic that I felt?"

Sophie's nerves seemed to have faded away. Whatever her atna was, it must have been a strong positive association for her. Ine was reminded of a child by the ignorant question, but it made him curious as well. He held up his palm to make her an offer that he supposed would be very useful to her as a lostling, and him as her Den Par.

"Yes. I am familiar with many atna, so if you don't recognize yours, I can. Once we know that much, I can help you choose how to study and what you'd like to learn."

The woman in his arms reluctantly released her circall, and Ine slipped his own fingers around the device still filled with her energy. The counselor half expected to find something out of the ordinary, given that Sophie was a lostling, but at a glance the only thing which was unusual about her atna was the strength of it. It was common knowledge that abstaining from magic use could strengthen one's atna, but with age and knowledge it became very difficult to avoid using one's magic. It was also well known that lostlings often had impressive magic, but the source or means had yet to be confirmed. This interview suggested the lostlings simply didn't know how to use magic until it was stimulated at a late age, which gave them their edge. Ine's risk was beginning to pay off.

The counselor delved beneath the brand of Sophie's power, dipping into the core which would determine her class. What he found was pleasantly surprising. He had never heard of a lostling with such an atna, and it was the most promising thing about her that he had seen so far. He congratulated the lostling. The first of a violent and powerful race to breach the civil lands... was a healer.


	6. Sophie 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sophie comes to understand a little more about her situation, her circall, and her counselor.

Sophie didn't remember where she'd heard that the universe ran on irony, but she was admiring their insight now. Life atna. Her magic was rooted in life, and had only come to her after her own had been lost. Or maybe she'd always had it, which only made her initial desire to leave it behind more morbidly amusing.

Luckily, Ine seemed to have taken Si's directions to heart. He explained without prompting the gist of what this would mean for Sophie. The healing art was not rare, as it came in many forms, but life atna was generally considered the only true healing magic. A plant atna could treat illnesses, a water atna could fortify the body, a siphon atna could pull out toxins, there were innumerable options for magical substitutes for true healing, but these were all secondary effects. One had to specialize in order to become any good with those skills. Life atna, on the other hand, was the only form of magic which could not only aid with any ailment, but was intended first and foremost for that purpose.

It sounded to Sophie as if Ine was saying she could be a doctor. Her thoughts spiraled downward at the thought. She already had enough on her plate just trying to pay back medical bills she was sure would come back to bite her and the cost of living for a place she didn't even have yet and food she didn't know where to shop for, let alone adding to that the cost of a fancy and long-term education like the one she would need to become a doctor, even if it was a magical one! She smiled wryly for Ine's sake, not feeling the hope she tried to project into her voice as the promise which had been so close slipped between her fingers yet again.

"Would it be so bad if I just... got some basic skills down and practiced the rest myself?"

"Oh? You want to learn by practicing, then?"

"Well... yeah. Can I?"

"Of course. It can be hard to find volunteers to practice on in a big city like this one, though. Even the patients in our health centres might turn you down to wait for a trained healer. You might do better to learn outside the sky sands if that is the case. What do you think?"

"I think I am going to need to earn a lot of money here doing shitty jobs." Sophie sighed, giving up on her attempts to persuade reality to her side. Travel was another thing with a cost attached as far as she could tell, since she would essentially need a plane to leave according to what Lo had told her.

"I don't know about that, but let's start with activating your circall if you're thinking about work and learning, okay?"

Sophie nodded, feeling a little brain-numb in the moment. She had spent too long working through this already, and it was tiring to try to trace the threads of hope out of the darkness when they were so thin they were easily snapped or lost in the gloom. She often wanted to sleep it off and just forget to wake up, but making the struggle stop took more effort than that. Effort that was almost as tiring for other reasons. Sophie had done it once, though, and she supposed she could always try again-

"Sophie!" Sophie snapped back into the moment, realizing she must have seemed to space out. She apologized, feeling ashamed and guilty for wasting his time with her when she was just going to discard all his help anyway. Ine was frowning at her, and again she felt a pang for being the cause of it.

"Sorry. It's just been a long day. Maybe I should go and get a rest before I finish this." Unfortunately, Sophie's words were not having their intended effect. If anything, it made Ine's frown deepen.

"Huh? We're just getting started. You haven't registered yet, do you even have a place to rest?"

Shit, he knew. How did he know? Well, she'd try to just hurry it along, then, but she wouldn't relinquish her excuse. She'd take only what she had to in order to get out of his hair and let him go back to helping people who could actually use it. She'd always been a lost cause, so there was no point in his trying, angel though he might be...uh. Wait. What?

"Your... face..." Sophie stared, forgetting to close her mouth as she groped for the next word. Ine's expression quickly shifted, and if Sophie was not mistaken, so did his face. She had been s _ure_  that a moment ago it had been growing fur! And his ears were still pointed at the tips, although it was going away.

"Your face!" Sophie repeated more sternly, as if being cheated, leaning in to jab a finger in his direction as if to prove she could see him. Ine winced, crossing his arms protectively over his chest, although he was leaning back and his expression didn't match what she knew of that body language at all. Although she was more used to seeing it in anger or arguments, the gesture reminded her more of a partially revealed woman covering herself up with the rest of his body language. Sophie didn't know what to make of it, so she just kept pointing in accusation.

There was a painfully awkward silence in which Ine's feathers ruffled and his wings shuffled uncomfortably and shriveled in size. Clearing his throat roughly, the man slowly held his palms up and out as he rose. The motions made the little scales popping up like a rash over his arms that much more obvious. 

"I'm sorry. Please excuse me for a moment."

With that, he hastened from the room, leaving Sophie baffled and frozen in shock. The angel wasn't an angel after all. Was it magic? After the thought finally dawned on her, she swiveled her body around to face the door, kneeling against the back of her chair in fascinated wonder. Maybe he wasn't an angel, but some kind of were-creature. Or a monster, like the ones outside, but he could take any sort of shape! So used to running in circles, Sophie's mind was getting wilder ideas the longer it was left to churn, so when Ine finally came back inside, she couldn't wait for an answer anymore. She had to know right away, and before Sophie had even noticed that all of the changes to Ine's skin and even his wings were gone, she was demanding answers.

"What are you?!"

This time, Ine just paused at the question and took a deep breath before continuing to his seat. Only, he didn't take it. Instead, he knelt in front of it. He brought his hands up and pressed them together, palms up, as if holding something small and delicate to offer her. He was way too serious for Sophie's liking.

"Forgive me, Sophie. I was rude. I didn't mean to upset you."

Nope.  _No_  idea how to deal with this scenario. Sophie tried to organize her thoughts, but couldn't get past the strangeness of what she had seen. She tried to just deal with the words for now, and not the rest.

"It's fine. Just tell me what you are, won't you?"

The desperation had retreated with the return of Sophie's confusion. She hated feeling so out of the loop. She already didn't know who she was dealing with, and now she had no idea what was going on, either. He'd ignored her the first time, but she hoped he wasn't going to say something like he couldn't tell her.

"Of course. I have a wild atna." After a beat in which Sophie looked only slightly less perplexed, Ine expanded his description. "My form changes with my mood. I can usually control it, but by nature, a wild atna is  _wild_. Sometimes a feeling is too strong to ignore."

Ooooh. Well, that  _sort of_ explained things. It sounded mostly like Ine's magic was shapeshifting, only it was connected to his emotions. That was actually pretty cool, if very weird. Funny that someone like that would get a job like this one, too. Maybe she wasn't the only one having trouble in this conversation, but she still didn't want to push her luck. 

"Right. Okay. Well, I'm sorry about freaking out on you, so can you sit back down now? We can go back to, uh. Actually, where were we again?"

A slow smile came over Ine's lips once Sophie stumbled conversation back in the direction of sanity, but he climbed back onto his own seat as requested. Sophie felt the tension eking out of her in tiny pieces, only now really wondering at Ine's lack of wings. That probably meant he was human, right? At least, she didn't think anything that naturally had wings could just make them disappear. Then again,  _magic._  Sophie huffed out a frustrated breath. This world had too many mysteries.

"Are you listening?"

"Yes?" Sophie had no idea where that question was coming from. She would be hard pressed not to be paying attention right now.

"Good. Let's register your name into your circall."

 _Shit_. Now she remembered what they had been talking about. Sophie internalized a groan. Back to the weird name talk again. This time she was determined to beat Ine to the punch. She was not floundering again.

"You know what, maybe I have amnesia or something, because my memories don't really seem to match up with reality. I don't know what kind of name to register with my circall."

"Well, healer Si already warned me that you would need thorough lessons with your rebirth. I don't know where to start or what you are missing, so why don't you tell me what questions you have as we go, and I will answer, even if we have to stop and answer a hundred questions before you register."

Relief flooded Sophie. Just the extent he seemed willing to go to for her proper education was reassuring, but it also made her feel more comfortable opening up to hear that he was expecting that anyway. Maybe she could even start with asking the most problematic questions before he got started. 

"Why can't I register my name as Sophie?"

Ine watched her with a neutral expression, but his extended silence made Sophie wonder if he was really just hiding what he felt about it. He had said his atna reacted to that sort of thing, but he'd also said he could usually ignore feelings to control them. Was he working through them slowly so that the reaction wouldn't be visible? So much for that brief relief.

"The simplest answer is that the circall can't do it. Like trying to eat glass. It would damage your body and not do anything for your hunger. The circall needs a name it can use, just like your body needs food it can use."

Wow! Sophie hadn't expected an answer to be so direct. She'd thought she might have to peel back layers of culture and language, or ask a dozen more questions to narrow it down, but apparently that wasn't necessary. She didn't understand the specifics, which was a different problem, but at least now she knew it was basically just a programming issue. Or whatever the magical equivalent of programming was. So her name really would have to meet some weird standard. Now she just had to figure out what that was. Luckily, Ine wasn't done.

"Circalls translate intent, not exact words, because many words can't be understood by all people. Imagine trying to explain colour to a sightless person. Instead of translating these words, a circall repeats the word exactly the first time it is heard. After the first time, the circall registers the word for future translations to prevent confusion."  
  
Sophie blurted a request for Ine to wait while she took the time to consider the implications of those words alone. Ine wasn't even done yet and he was giving Sophie exactly what she hadn't known she needed. She didn't want to make the mistake of tuning out further information as she had with Si in case the rest of it was just as important.

Rebirth. Atna. Even circall. She'd already had examples of these mix-ups with words being poorly or not at all translated. Oh, hell.  _Canada_. The frozen north. Well, she supposed it wasn't inaccurate, and it was kind of how she thought of her home nation, but no wonder the name had gone over without any suspicion. Come to think of it-!

"Is this city really called Sky Sand?"

"When you register your circall, I will teach you how to change words between direct and intentional translations." Ine chuckled, but was clearly encouraged by Sophie's question. She was on the right track! "If I continue, we will be able to fix it more quickly. Are you ready?"

Sophie nodded enthusiastically, and when Ine didn't start she slowed the motion in thought. Some things didn't translate. Like kneeling and holding out your hands for forgiveness? Or nodding your head? No way, that one was pretty universal, right? 

"Yes."

Either nodding wasn't universal or she was in another universe, because it wasn't until Sophie had verbally responded that Ine started up again. Sophie almost slipped back into a trance considering her time here again, but caught herself. She couldn't afford to miss this, and had  _just_  told her counselor she was ready to listen!

"Names have meanings. People connect thoughts to the people they belong to. Name translations can become confused by these things, so circalls are made to recognize and translate them differently. To be recognized, a name has to fit the pattern. Names of places don't fit the pattern, so they translate normally unless you change them." 

Sophie thought Ine might just be a real angel after all, wings or no. She hated it, but at least she understood now why she needed a different name. She wanted to ask if she could just change the way her circall recognized names, but Ine was one step ahead of her. 

"Circalls translate in pairs. They work better when they all match, which is why you will get more mistakes in translations between new and old circalls or custom and basic circalls." He gave a pointed glance to Sophie's circall and then leaned forward to hold his own out beside hers. The differences were subtle, but obvious when you started looking. The text scrawling over the prisms of Sophie's bracelet were slow and appeared one symbol at a time, scratched in and then filled again, whereas Ine's transitioned smoothly and flitted across like handwriting in sand with the tide right behind it. Ine's circall even seemed to be strung together of many small spheres rather than long prisms locked together at their joints.

"Circalls can be customized in many ways. Sometimes with upgrades, sometimes being replaced by better models, but sometimes the changes can be built in. If you want to be called Sophie, you can have your circall translate the name you choose. Others will hear your chosen name, but you will give and hear your own."

It was exactly the solution Sophie had needed, and the one she wanted. If she had to do this. Which she did. Damn it, she shouldn't be so excited! She'd already decided it wasn't worth sticking around in a world where she would just have to slave away to survive again, hadn't she? Still, she would need to finish here before she could move on, so she kept her smile up even after the warmth of the moment had faded.

"Please show me."


	7. Sophie 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sophie activates her circall, and new concerns join the old.

Ine had already proven to be more intuitive and helpful than Sophie had expected of someone in his position, so she didn't resist as he walked her through the process of registering her circall. It involved a lot of careful manipulation of the device's parts, but didn't take long. Ine advised Sophie to forego the initial sequence so that she could find and configure her name settings first, then advised her to resume the circall's regular procedures. She was concerned that it would take time to learn how to use the device, excusing her lack of knowledge again with the story of her foreign circall, but Ine promised that once it had adjusted it would be quite intuitive. Sophie didn't have time to ask what he meant by that before the circall chirped and a screen popped up in front of her.

Hello, Sophie!  
Thank you for registering.  
Please wait while your interface is updated.

Sophie stared at the projection in awe. She recognized the style of the screen from an old video game she used to play, and without thinking, she reached out to touch it. Her hand passed right through, as she had half expected, but she was still no closer to understanding how the image was hanging in front of her without any apparent source. It was probably magic. Just how much of the stuff was there crammed into these circalls, anyway? The screen blinked, then began to scroll through more messages.

Sophie recognized the words, but as Sophie's familiarity increased, so did her confusion and her fears. These were terms she knew from games. Words like stats, quests, achievements, skills, and party. Why was her circall spitting out game terms? Soon the text stopped on a final message asking her to wait while the main menu loaded, then proceeded to fold and shift until all that remained was a three-dimensional rendering of her circall overlapping her view of the world. It rotated slowly, with each translucent prism of the device clearly labeled. Sophie was no longer alone in her awe. Ine, too, was watching in fascinated silence. As the hologram spun, the foremost prism would glow, along with its real life counterpart. Was this supposed to be a menu? It was unlike any she had ever seen, but the circall finally seemed to have stabilized, continually cycling through the options available to her.

Settings  
Status  
Logs  
Map  
Shop  
Help

_Welcome to your tutorial, Sophie! If you have any questions as we go along,_ _just ask!_ _Once the tutorial is over, you can search for the answers to any future questions in the Help section of your menu!_

The words startled Sophie to attention, and she marveled at the device's growing repertoire of tricks. There was something familiar about the voice, but she couldn't quite place it. She hadn't expected her circall to be able to talk after all the text rolling across her screen, but that voice was definitely coming from the projection, and it was a relief to hear that she would finally be getting a proper introduction in this world. She even felt a nostalgic pleasure at starting a fresh challenge before realizing again the implications of having a tutorial for a game menu in a device that seemed to be intended to help her succeed in real life.

_Your circall is a magical tool, and it will adapt to your individual thoughts and preferences to make use feel natural. Circalls are used to manage information, whether by translating languages, sending messages, keeping records or sharing qualifications, and are used in all civilized locations. The more magic your circall has to work with, the greater its abilities, limited only_ _by stars and shards_ _. To unlock greater abilities, please add_ _shards_ _or_ _update_ _your_ _star._

The idea that the circall could adapt to her thoughts was a bit creepy, but Sophie was hoping that meant the game-related layout and all was just because it was familiar to her, rather than because she was living in some kind of game. While living in a game she would have some idea how to succeed, unlike the life she was used to, it would also have other implications for her existence and mortality that she didn't like to consider.

It sounded like the circall was an irreplaceable tool in a person's everyday life, so no wonder people had thought it odd of her to start over without one so easily. It would be like shrugging off the loss of a laptop you'd kept all your life, with your ID and personal information, work files and everything else all tied up in one place. That was what this circall would be to her now in this place, she realized, and she might have to invest in these greater abilities it spoke of. Sophie now had questions, some of which she wasn't actually afraid to know the answers to.

"What do you mean by stars and shards?" The holographic prisms stopped in place and pulled apart so that all but one seemed to shrink and vanish. The Help option remained, spinning on its tip as the voice came again to answer.

_Shards, magic bound to solid form by purpose and will, come in many different shapes and levels of magical power. Every circall is made of multiple shards which work together to complete tasks a single shard could not alone. Shards are limited by the power, skill, and the atna of their creator. Shards can be purchased or traded for in most official city markets, and can lend new power to your circall according to the atna which made them._

As the voice went through these explanations, more pieces of the circall - shards, apparently - returned from the abyss they had been banished to, spinning and dancing alongside the first, until they all came together and became whole again. Once the voice started up on the next subject, the shards quickly reordered themselves in a vertical line, with the top shard flashing in a slow rhythm. This was the Help option again.

_Star refers to the shard in a circall with the highest level of skill and purpose applied in its creation. This shard arranges and directs the others for effective use, according to its purpose. Stars are exchanged instead of being added when updating, as a star uses the power of the other shards in a circall and doesn't need power, only to change effectiveness or purpose._

That was actually pretty damn cool. It sounded like someone had mashed magic into the basic shape of a computer, only Sophie was pretty sure stars and shards sounded more flexible than computer parts. As far as she knew, computers had limits based on what existed when they were built, but apparently you could just keep,swapping out shards and stars indefinitely without worrying about getting a whole new circall at some point, or tossing out old pieces to make room for new ones. Well, magic was bound to improve some things.  _Magic was so cool._  Huh. Come to think of it.

"Uhm, am I right in thinking you are my circall? Or I guess my star? Or that you speak for it, anyway? What is your purpose, or my star's purpose if that makes more sense?" There was a longer pause than Sophie expected, and she started to rephrase her question in a less haphazard fashion, when she noticed the text on her circall flickering. Was it loading an answer or something?

_Yes. I am a star. My purpose is to help and guide my user._

Oh. That was handy. It seemed to be really good at that so far, too. Maybe even more so than Ine... and it would always be available... oh, this was good. Without Sophie's attention on it, the menu returned to its usual position and spinning.

_If there are no further questions, you_ _can choose any section to begin your tutorial. Simply tap the correct section or swipe up or down to find it in your main menu. You are advised not to ignore any section if you wish to make the best use of your circall_ _._ _If at any time you need to refresh your memory, a record of your tutorial_ _and inquiries_ _can be found in your Logs under Messages._

Sophie hesitated. She had so many plans, but she supposed none of them could go anywhere any faster than she learned to use the rest of the circalls functions. There were a few options in the list that drew her attention, but mostly because of what she expected to find in them. She wasn't sure if she was ready for all of them yet. Settings would no doubt be full of technical babble, and she was already mid-tutorial so she didn't need help yet. She wasn't going anywhere either, so the map was out. She couldn't have much in Logs yet since this was a new circall. That just left... Status or Shops.

Taking a shaky breath, Sophie reached out to tap one of the menu items with a fingertip, gasping when the prism spun under the touch and pulled away from the rest of the illusory bracelet to become the hologram's new focus, as Help before it had. Only this prism unrolled like a crystalline scroll and flooded with text. Sophie's curiosity had led her to the Status screen. She recognized some of the words, but frowned as her eyes wandered down the scroll, stopping long before she reached the end. Most of the information was locked. She could see her name and race, her mana, health, and  stamina, some active effects, an almost empty party section and only a handful of skills, mostly general things like cleaning and math. Ick and boring. This was not what she had come to a fantasy world for. Well, okay, she had no idea why she had come to a fantasy world, but she sure as hell wasn't going to  _let_  it be math or cleaning!  
  
Wasn't this supposed to be where she found out what her strengths and weaknesses were, or what she could do as she got stronger? What was this, and why was everything locked? Not to mention the shiver the active effects sent down her spine. Depression... the word left a bitter taste on her tongue without her ever using it. Was that real, or was it just another thing the magic machine was mistranslating from her head to help her understand the effect? Where had the other two, disorientation and soothing touch, even come from?

_Welcome to your Status scroll! Here you will find all kinds of information about yourself such as your stats, skills, active effects_ _on your stats_ _, your active party members, and your current inventory. Some stats - like your name and race - cannot be changed, while others can be unlocked or exercised._ _If you do not understand something on your screen, please ask about it!_

"Depression?" The word came out accusingly, and when the circall didn't give her an answer, Sophie expanded. "What does that mean?"

_Depression is a permanent status effect which drains stamina and health, as well as decreasing agility, endurance, strength, charisma,  and wisdom. It locks certain perks and skill progression._

Sophie choked on the revelation. That was a serious hit to her stats, and it explained why her stamina was just about down to half and her health had also taken a ding. It was a totally unfair disadvantage to start a game with! Sophie clenched her teeth. She didn't even know what all of her stats were, but that seemed to list a lot of them. She almost didn't dare check the other active effects, but Soothing Touch didn't sound bad, so she asked what that was.

_Soothing Touch is a temporary effect which boosts stamina and health, and increases endurance, strength, resilience, and wisdom. It's effectiveness decreases with time._

Temporary  _and_ not as effective as Depression. Sophie wilted against the back of her chair. Not only was this effect going to disappear eventually, but that meant the bite out of her stats was taking into account something that had actually raised it up from what it had already been. It really was hopeless, then. She didn't even know where the Soothing Touch had come from, but even if she could make it permanent, it would't cancel out negative effects that strong.

"Sophie? What's wrong?"

Sophie had forgotten Ine was still there with her, watching as she navigated her new interface. It made her suddenly ashamed of her condition, and she shut the menu without looking at anything else. She hadn't even been trying to hide it. Hell, she had read the damned thing out loud, and her so-called helper had announced her weakness in front of him in detail if he didn't recognize what it meant. He was being nice to protect her dignity, had to be, but it was too late and she knew he knew, and god she was such an  _idiot_ -

"Sophie, please talk to me."

The reminder of her silence broke Sophie from her internal dialogue long enough to delay the introspective. She looked up from between her fingers. She didn't know when she had buried her face in her hands, but it must only make her look more pathetic now. She wiped at her face as if rubbing herself to wakefulness although she was really making sure she hadn't shed any telltale tears. She forced herself to come as close to meeting Ine's eyes as she dared.

"Is something about your circall bothering you?"

"No." Not exactly. Just what it was telling her about herself, but that wasn't the circall's fault, it was hers. No use blaming the symptom of the problem. Really, her star had just told her something she'd always sort of known and not wanted to admit to herself. She was broken. Inferior. Defective.

"You're not having any trouble understanding it?"

It was tempting to say she understood it just fine, that she didn't need his help anymore, and to go on her way and quietly sulk in her misery, but she couldn't help at least wondering one thing out loud. The question which had haunted her, and maybe this world had a better way of understanding and answering than hers had.

"Why is there so much I just... can't do?" She meant it in a very different way than he took it.

"There is still plenty you can do, but compared to what you've seen other circalls do, it must not seem like much. A basic circall doesn't have many shards, though. Only enough to do the basics, which is why it has that name. You'll need to save up or trade for new shards, and a star more suited to your needs."

At first, the apparent topic change threw Sophie off completely. Then she caught on to what he was saying, and before she could correct him, some of what he was saying reached her, and she had an entirely different correction that seemed more important to make first.

"Suit my needs better? This one seems fine, what's wrong with it?"

"Nothing, but once you settle in and things are not so new, you won't need a guiding star. If you want to improve your magic, then a study or focus star would be better, you see?"

She didn't see. Not really. Sure, studying and focus might sound useful to magic, but wasn't there more a guide could teach her than she could figure out on her own? She'd never had much initiative or been good at learning things herself.   
  
"Couldn't I just have more than one?" Ine winced at her suggestion, and Sophie took it that would be a bad idea after all.

"Two stars would interrupt each other and divide the power of your circall between them, making it work slowly or not at all. You can only have one star."

That seemed unfair to the stars which were left over and unwanted. This one seemed perfectly good to her, but Ine seemed to have assumed she would discard it as soon as possible. Such a waste. Like her. That decided Sophie on the matter. She would keep her subpar star as long as it could be of any use to her. She might never be the best, probably not the hero usually played in games, but then she never could have been in reality, could she? So this was fine. Besides, she liked this star. Sophie had not planned to waste time and money on her circall, but now she was dead set on ignoring the option of replacing her star, so maybe she could set something aside for more shards. She couldn't fix her own condition, but she could sure fix up her star with a great magic boost and-

Hey, wait, who said she couldn't fix her condition? Sophie had  _magic_  damn it! And  _healing_  magic at that! If she couldn't do something about depression, nobody could! She just had to get good enough for it, and there was bound to be a way. Hah! Now she was getting somewhere. Magic was still the answer.  _Magic could fix her_.  
  
"This one is fine for now, thanks." Sophie assured her counselor, emphasizing her politeness so as to dissuade any attempts to change her mind.  
  
"If you say so. You just seemed upset."  
  
"Well, I just forgot something, that's all. I've sorted it all out now."  
  
"Oh, good. I can't tell what you're doing, but it looks very interesting. Will you explain it to me sometime?"

"What do you mean? You can see and hear everything I can, can't you?"

"Not at all," Ine shook his head, "You're using your native language with yours, right? That's what you were speaking? You aren't translated when you speak to your circall, and I can't read this text, either. It's all gibberish to me. Most people don't like to speak to their circalls because they can still be overheard. No privacy that way. You're pretty lucky. So far from home, I doubt many will understand what you say anyway."

Sophie sat in stunned silence for a moment. Ine hadn't understood her, or heard her circall. He couldn't even read her menu or screens. So... he really had no idea what she was upset about? It was still her secret. He didn't know anything was wrong with her. Which meant nobody else would know yet, either. 

"Does yours do that, too?"

"Mine uses touch and sight input, but I've worked hard to write my own language to protect my clients, and only I can hear what it says." Amusement flickered through her counselor's features as he flashed his own circall. The language on it was definitely different from hers, but she didn't know if it was unusual for this world or not. Interesting.

"Why were you watching me, then?"

"To make sure there weren't any problems."

"None so far. Does that mean we're done?"

"Not exactly. Are you finished with your circall, or would you like to figure out where you are going from here?"

There was a lot of pressure in the question. The circall still had plenty more to explore, but she would have more time with it, whereas she wasn't sure she could say the same of Ine. She wasn't sure she knew enough to move ahead on whatever he wanted, either, though. Hanging between the two, Sophie's semi-transparent circall spun in lazy circles. A small smile crinkled the corner of her lips. Well, any help she might need was just one question away. Cold feet. Take a deep breath and leap.

"I'm ready. Let's move on."


	8. Ine 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> With Sophie's registration complete, Ine hopes to settle her in properly... but something is wrong.

The lostlings were as their name implied. As far as the civil world could tell, they spawned from nothing out of the astha and immediately began claiming their surroundings, as if they had lost their own. Theories abounded over where the lostlings came from, but there was no proof as of yet which made any more plausible than the others. Their purpose was likewise a mystery, as the lostlings often did inexplicable or counter intuitive things, and there seemed to be little or no unity in them. In fact, most of the lostlings fought over territory and dominance, not just with lostlings of a different species, but between themselves in a number of cases.

Oddly enough, some lostling species actually resembled those which were already present in this world, but it was often those without native counterparts which were most open to exchange with and transition into cities within Dustha's borders. There had been a time when regular excursions into the wilds beyond the frontier were made by trained warriors, but it had proven too dangerous to maintain a solid presence in a land where creatures who were often violent continually appeared in unexpected times and places. In those days, the peaceful sort of lostling had been welcomed inside Dustha's walls, but after a few hard losses and even harder won battles retaking the territories, it had been decided that any gap in the border was too great a liability.

All of this meant that Ine had already gathered more knowledge about the human presence outside their borders than any citizen of the civil nations had been able to gather in centuries, and that he had the opportunity to learn the answer to some of those mysteries surrounding the lostlings. If only he could convince Sophie to open up to him. He had done what he could to be kind and helpful, trying to avoid any actions which might be construed as hostile or suspicious, but it was hard to know if he was doing something wrong when he didn't know if he was breaking some unknown custom. All he could judge by was Sophie's actions and reactions, but the woman was reticent.

Ine was a captive and mute audience to Sophie's education in the use of her circall. Her methods were somehow both more open than any other he had seen and more private due to the language difference between them. She had constructed, seemingly unconsciously if her reactions were genuine, an intricate illusory interface. One which she had proceeded to use just as naturally as any civil citizen, which debunked a number of theories about the lostlings' abilities to even use a circall, not to mention the assumption that human lostlings were too distrustful to act in good faith with.

Sophie used the device so quickly that Ine wasn't sure if she was feigning inexperience, the interface was just that intuitive, or Sophie herself was somehow incredibly gifted in absorbing information. Within moments of running the initial setup, Sophie was shifting between awe and growing tension, and the circall only seemed to be compounding whatever was causing the fluctuation as she conversed with it. It was when the difference of one exchange sent her from a rigid anger into a defeated slump that Ine could no longer let whatever was unfolding continue to play out. He needed to know what was going on, and he interrupted her exploration to inquire about the source of her trouble. Except Sophie was still refusing to open up to him. He didn't know if her question about the circalls limitations was a deflection from the true issue or if she was really so distraught over its abilities, but the latter possibility concerned him. Was the lostling subtly seeking power, after all?

The increasingly skewed direction of the discussion as Ine tried to give his client the benefit of the doubt wasn't encouraging him, and then she cut off the topic suddenly as if with a change of mind, and gave a poor excuse for her behavior when he tried to gently press her again. Trying a different strategy, Ine left the problem alone and tried to uncover more about how Sophie was using her circall. Maybe if he could figure that out, he could circle around to his answer another way. Once again Sophie surprised him. She seemed completely unaware that he hadn't been able to understand a word of what she had just been doing, and he couldn't help finding humor in the situation. Here he was wondering why she was being so secretive, and it might well have been because she thought he was being too invasive. No wonder. That fit what he had seen of her behavior so far much better than what his recent worries had suggested.

Ine was excited when Sophie agreed to move on from her circall and interact directly with him again. It had made him antsy to sit by as an outsider, like some kind of voyeur, and he had struggled to withhold the creeping changes in his physique from her observation. Stewing on unhappy possibilities hadn't helped. He asked that she set aside her interface and with a quick word with the circall, she brushed aside the projection with a wave of her arm. Sophie had such large reactions to things sometimes, but most of her emotions were like the muted one he saw then. A fleeting flex of muscle around the eyes or mouth, miniature expressions that gave away greater meaning if you were looking for them. So much harder to fake than the real kind, these were what really gave away the truth of Sophie's amazement with her surroundings. She had looked at him that way when they had first met, and he had not known what to make of it. He still didn't, but it was far from the top of his list of priorities for now.

"As I understand it, you don't have any necessary arrangements yet. That means the first thing we should do is find you shelter and a means of sustenance. Then we can worry about regular income and future plans. I know it leaves the fun part of the strategy for last, but I would rather you have a home to go to and food to eat instead of only work to complete or lofty goals before our session ends."

During this part, the counselor could almost forget who and what he was dealing with. He was quite accustomed to dealing with sapients from all walks of life. Even dealing with one who had been reborn, so to speak, just meant mixing a few generic applications into one. Sure, the choices weren't ideal to start with, but Ine could promise her that like any other citizen, time would prove her trustworthy and she could earn a better place. Securing food in the short term was another simple task, and so long as Sophie got herself work within the first week she would have no trouble.

"Only a week?"

"Only? Do you have something else you need to do first?"

"What if I can't find work?"

Ine was sure his silent stare gave the wrong impression, but he hoped it was better than showing his bafflement would have been. He didn't want her to close up any more than she already was out of caution.

"You won't need to find anything. If you fail every duty the recruitment office assigns you, then you will be examined in order to determine what has made you unsuitable. Either you will be found unfit to work and afforded a minor living stipend regulated by an official representative or given the necessary tools or training to improve your performance and complete regular duties."

"Recruitment? Like warriors?"

"Of course not. You don't have the qualifications for that position. You'll likely start off with sanitation or making deliveries. Under close supervision to begin with, of course."

Ine was seeing those red flags again in Sophie's words and trying to remain professional, but it was difficult to impart the importance of the woman's errors without admitting he knew what she was. It was not a position he was used to. Normally the outsiders he helped were well aware that he knew what they were, and that was why they sought his help in the first place. If Sophie wasn't more careful, though, she would have the wrong kind of people picking up on what she was.

"Sophie. In the future, if you are uncertain of something, clear it up with your circall or send me a message first. I don't want anyone to get the wrong idea about you because they are unaware of your... foreign customs."

"What do you mean by the wrong idea?" Ine held his breath as Sophie's posture became rigid under the suggestion. She knew she was acting suspiciously, then. It was something, but not enough. It seemed more curious to Ine now that Sophie had managed to remain inconspicuous until now than that she had made it into the civilized world in the first place.

"That you... don't belong."

There was a long, tense silence. Shit, he'd crossed the line and been too blunt. Ine had thought Sophie would just roll along with her foreign identity excuse, but maybe being so direct had made it clear that such measures usually weren't necessary even for non-natives. Now he feared that Sophie might finally show her lostling nature in an attempt to clear her slate again. If he tried to speak in his defense, to insist he was trying to help, would she listen? Was there no room in lostling logic and culture for trust after all? The woman began to shake. Ine prepared to defend himself, but there was little he could get between them soon enough which would do much good if the woman had any of the violence in her which he had read about. When she spoke instead, it gave him reason both for relief and unease.

" _Is_  that the wrong idea?"

Ine sensed the carefully placed path of his words turn to glass. Something in Sophie's bearing now reminded him of passion and violence, but none that he knew, and it was disturbing. Worse than their violence was the unpredictable nature which made lostlings so deadly. Sophie had seemed so tame, so withdrawn, that even as Ine had logically stacked proof of Sophie's origins and accepted them to be true, he hadn't been able to associate those facts with the reports of unexpected shifts in behavior. Ine had been inclined to believe that these warnings were just exaggerations of cultural misunderstanding. He was not so certain now. Sophie had a life atna, and surely she wouldn't become violent, but why had her attitude turned so suddenly? What would happen now?

"Do you feel like you don't belong here, Sophie?" Of course she didn't, she was a lostling. He could be making a very poor choice, his professional experience told him this was the wrong direction to take, but experience wasn't all Ine had. Instinct went hand in hand with Ine's atna. It was as much responsible for where he was today as anything else. He trusted it, and in doing so trusted himself. Sophie did not answer, did not even seem to hear.

"Do you think that because there are none like you here, there is no place for one like you?"

The path was not glass, but ice. A very easy mistake to make when the surface was so smooth, but when it chipped rather than shattered, the distinction became clear. Maybe not consciously, but his client had recognized truth in his words, and if Ine could melt a little of that ice between them, he could reach her.

"Do you feel like you are alone?"

Sophie remained still and quiet, but she sat less rigidly, her jaw and hands were no longer clenched. If all he had done was release the building pressure, Ine had at least saved them both from a worse fate. If he was going to reach her, though, it had to be soon. Before she pulled back again.

Ine slowly brought his hand forward and threaded his fingers through Sophie's, and she finally looked up. He couldn't read through such a depth of emotions, but he knew that he could at least answer that question for her.

"You are not alone, Sophie. Belonging is not always about being the same. Sometimes, it is just about what works together. Let me help you."


	9. Cheerp 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> While Sophie struggles with mundane challenges, much greater concerns are arising elsewhere...

Every branch thrummed with the shock of distant frantic motion. The air reeked of fear and fury. Every instinct screamed run, and many did, but Cheerp was wiser than his instincts. The swarm was active, feeding on its own panic, building as they gathered steam and slower company was caught up in the surge of bodies. Cheerp squeezed into the smallest gap he could without trapping himself, a hollow made in an old tree. Dangerous as it was to enter face first, it would be more so to exit that way when the swarm was alert to some great danger, and so Cheerp took the risk and pressed himself in, until even the tips of his longest arms were curled tightly to his body. Without being able to see through the gap behind him, Cheerp had to wait in the dark, relying on his sense of touch and the vibrations brought to him through the sensitive hairs all along each of his arms to understand what was happening beyond the walls of his hiding place. As he listened, the trembling from the distant swarm grew into a rumble so deep the muck-diggers must have thought the ground was splitting.

When the first figure swung past - all pointed features and sharp claws digging into the bark of one tree after another just to fling itself off again, praying not to miss, not to fall, not to have chosen the dead end route - it was not one of the swarm. Merely one of the young creatures trying to keep out of the way by the only means they had learned, which was to join the race, trying not to be overrun. It never worked. A string of other speedy creatures followed behind, not far from the lead, but Cheerp could feel it already in every painfully vibrating inch of his body. They were too close, and the rest of the world was losing focus as the sounds multiplied.

There were no stragglers. The swarm was not slow enough or small enough to leave any such thing behind. There were only those ahead of the mob, those inside it, and those beaten and torn to pieces in its wake. The writhing mass moved just as wildly as the leading creatures trying to keep ahead of it, heedless of direction or what it used as handholds so long as the force behind it pressing onward was not impeded. Each member frantically keeping pace or being swept beneath the swarm and dragged along or trampled to death. Often both.

The swarm itself made no sound. It was the trees that made the forest scream as the swarm's many limbs strained the branches supporting it and bodies were beaten against any obstacles with unrelenting force. The swarm was of a singular mind, though they did not share thoughts or bodies. It was only that the same panic was induced in them all by the presence of a greater threat, and so they all reacted in the same way. The swarm was made of many kinds of creatures attempting to escape their fate, but the heart of the beast were the ones who had started it. Prickly, gleaming pests the size of Cheerp's face, the swarm starters were distinctive and infested every territory in small clusters. The sound they made when they moved, of metal grazing metal, was the sound used by his kind to mimic them,  _shrriik_. The shrriik didn't eat other creatures, so they were largely ignored or avoided due to their spikiness, but when they started skittering about at great speeds, they could spook most of the other creatures in this territory into motion in the attempt to keep themselves from being carved to pieces.

Between being crushed beneath the oncoming hordes and sliced to ribbons, hiding seemed the better choice, except that Cheerp was not near a sturdy enough hiding place when the swarm approached. Cheerp felt as though he would break apart under the tremor. Cheerp begged the tree around him to hold as the first impacts began like heavy rain breaking against his wooden shell and picking up into a cyclone. The trees were young and defenceless here compared to those from his home, where the swarm would not have been so large or seen so many creatures helpless to hide or fight back. Living thunder and shaking earth seemed to encompass Cheerp both at once and he shrilled his cries into the deaf violence outside as he felt himself dying, for this had to be what it felt like. Crushing him from the inside out, breath first, Cheerp felt as though several long hours of the slow drowning nowhere near water had passed, but when the weight of the noise and shaking of trees had gone, it felt like it had vanished all at once.

Really, Cheerp had just been so overwhelmed by the vibrations of the swarm that he had felt the aftershocks of their passing long after they had gone, and once they passed from his body the swarm was no longer in range for him to feel even the trace of their direction. He didn't dare to peek out, drawing in long and terrified gulps of air. When Cheerp's limbs felt strong enough to move again, he gently prodded about the entrance to his hole and cautiously removed his body once he believed it to be safe. The trees were still silent in the wake of the passing danger except for the foreign creature now navigating in the only safe direction. The only direction the swarm would avoid. The one which it had fled from. Of course, that meant moving toward another danger, but Cheerp had learned that the swarm could be more dangerous than whatever started it, and so he proceeded on trembling limbs.

It was not difficult to find the source of the swarm. Only a few moments of travel in the direction it had fled from, Cheerp slowed his pace and felt his way forward more attentively. He could sense the disturbance from well off long before he saw anything, and his already weak body collapsed into terrified jelly at the sounds. Any of his kind would recognize the source of those sounds immediately. Khrnch was a power to be reckoned with, but these stirrings felt too frequent and deep for anything less than a challenging battle to be taking place.

Holding himself high with the aid of his arms, Cheerp wouldn't even reach a full five foot height, but he was young still with plenty of room to grow. Khrnch, on the other hand, was both much older and much stronger than Cheerp. While Cheerp was known for his relatively stealthy mobility for his size, Khrnch didn't need to bother with stealth. The elder could rise to three times Cheerp's height and had much greater bulk. With that size came a tougher exterior still capable of amazing flexibility, more potent toxin, and a firm grip that could crush even a shrriik in any of Khrnch's six arms. No wonder the swarm had kicked up if Khrnch was battling something tough enough to keep coming at him. Except, whatever it was that had started the fight was like nothing Cheerp had ever heard. It made sounds both familiar and foreign to him, changing from moment to moment. It was difficult to tell what was happening from a distance, but Cheerp had no desire to go closer until the sounds abruptly ceased.

Khrnch had gone into a desperate flailing near the end, but then slowed to a dead stop. The end had appeared to be clear and terrifying enough to stay well clear, except that after a few moments of peace Khrnch's bulk was back up and moving again. Cheerp had strained to feel more, and when he had clearly not been close enough he had snuck further and further along in an attempt to understand. He could smell the reek of blood and toxins easily enough, but the other scents were too muddled to make sense of. Despite the wounds he must have had, Khrnch seemed to be moving with more confidence after his strange victory. Cheerp tried to signal Khrnch, but something was off. Instead of responding, Khrnch stilled and lifted himself to peer at his surroundings without making a sound. Noise should have been the natural thing to make if Khrnch had been trying to find something in his environment, whether it was an ally or a threat; he wouldn't be able to see anything that was holding still without it. Khrnch had no reason to be silent, especially since he couldn't hide very well at his size in such a young forest.

Cheerp had a terrible feeling. Pressing himself cautiously to the tree holding him off the dangerous forest floor, Cheerp's foreboding only grew as Khrnch lowered from his own perch to the ground. Of course, there was nothing there which would serve as any more of a threat to Khrnch than anything in the trees, but it also left him slow and more easily surrounded. While Khrnch seemed to have lost interest in Cheerp, the smaller creature could not do the same. In short order, Khrnch headed off toward the stone wall and Cheerp crept toward the site of the battle to investigate what might have happened to make Khrnch act so strangely. Even if no corpse had been left behind, which was unlikely since it didn't sound like Khrnch had stopped to eat, the smell of blood would soon draw predators. Cheerp would have to move fast, and so he followed the strongest smells first. What he found left him even more confused than he had already been. Still feebly clinging to the twisting branches of the tree supporting it, Cheerp found Khrnch's body. At this distance, there was no mistaking the scent of his fellow mimic. Cheerp had believed Khrnch to be the survivor for a time, but it seemed that he had just been fooled by a similarly shaped relative.

There was only one type of his kind Cheerp could think of which would do such a thing, and it was a concern for every other mimic in the forest. An exile had come to their territory, and had likely killed in order to establish a new safe place for itself. Normally, the mimics in the area would band together against such a threat and send him down to the ground, but there were not nearly enough here for that and most of them were too young to have enough power to effectively force the exile back to his place. Except that this exile didn't seem to even want to stay in the trees, so why he had picked a fight in the first place was beyond Cheerp. Every new piece of information just ruined whatever sense the last few bits had pieced together. There was nothing for it. Rather than be caught by surprise and find out the hard way what this exiled mimic was after and what it might do next, Cheerp needed to get proactive. He would follow the bigger creature and try to discern something useful from what he observed. With any luck, he would not be noticed in return.

~~*~~

The closer Cheerp came to the stone wall, the more anxious he became. He had caught up with the exile surprisingly quickly. The larger mimic was still moving slowly over the ground, carrying himself on his arms as though they were legs. It had to be uncomfortable, but the exile didn't seem to have any inclination to return to the trees. Perhaps he had stumbled into Khrnch by accident and thought there were more challengers around. That would explain why he stayed down now that he knew he wasn't alone in the strange new place they had all found themselves. It wouldn't last once he realized how young and few his opposition were, though. Cheerp would have to continue after the exile until he knew the place where it hid to rest. Cruel as the notion was, Cheerp was considering leading enemies to that hideout while the exile slept to give the other mimics a chance of survival, so he was conflicted as he watched Khrnch's killer arrive at the stone wall.

The wall stretched from beyond the first borders of the muck-digger dens along the first-light side of the mimic territory and continued on into the trapped lands. No mimic had ever bothered to attempt crossing this border. Sensitive to the subtle sounds and motions far beyond the protective barrier, Cheerp and his kind knew the kind of monsters contained within the massive stone prison. They had no idea how the wall had come to be, but even with the vicious attacks on their territory by the scavengers from the trapped lands, the mimics had never even been tempted by the idea of entering the far more deadly prison beyond the walls. Cheerp had expected the exile to turn long before now, or to come up short at some point when the obvious danger loomed ahead. Was this not his first time sensing the stone's contents? Had he found some safe place along the stone which so many other creatures avoided? Intrigued, Cheerp pressed closer even as his fear rose up to swallow him. He was so distracted by the exile's behaviour that he almost missed the other warning signs.

Halting mid-reach, Cheerp pulled back his arms and shrank against his perch once more, feeling out his surroundings intently. One, two, ten, twenty...! So many scavengers in one place. For an instant, Cheerp thought they must be using the wall which the mimics avoided to sneak up on them, but then the exile arrived among them and Cheerp lost any hope of understanding the situation. As the pack closed in on the mimic traitor, the exile lifted all his arms straight up at once. With no trees nearby strong enough to bear his weight, it should have been a signal for the tricky creatures to strike at his poorly defended underside, but instead they seemed to lose interest entirely. Was it some kind of scavenger code? Had this exile managed in the short span it must have been here to team up with the most notoriously vicious creatures living in the area? Cheerp had the feeling he was missing something important, but it wasn't until the explosion of activity on the other side of the stone wall that he realized how right he was.

While Cheerp had been lost in thought, the exile had somehow managed to cross the stone border, and it hadn't taken long for something inside to notice. As the myriad of monsters within were alerted to the new presence, they began to create a swarm of their own. Cheerp had no doubts it was even more deadly than the one he had escaped so recently, and yet even the awkward exile was able to outmaneuver them long enough for the scavengers which had been climbing the stone prison to join the battle. Between the hard second skins the scavengers wrapped around themselves and the teeth and claws of strange beasts they used in place of their own, the scavengers already made an unappealing target. When they started changing the world around them, they became a menace to be avoided almost as eagerly as the enemies they now faced. The prisoners were the greater threat, though. They held many of the same powers as the scavengers, but also came with greater numbers, larger creatures, and worked as a team. Something very few of the scavengers seemed to be able to do. All the same, with their attention split between the new arrivals, the defenders didn't notice when the exile ceased to exist, hidden as it was from their limited vision at the time. Cheerp noticed. Forgetting the larger scale of events as one small part of them caught his attention, Cheerp felt something new take the false-mimic's place. Like something out of a nightmare, Cheerp learned of the frightening new contenders for territory outside of that prison, and reconsidered his previous convictions that the invaders could not possibly succeed.

The exile had already been larger than most creatures on either side of the border before it changed. When it stood again, there was no comparison. The new danger reared up from its new position behind the incoming forces, where it had stealthily squeezed out of sight with its mimic form, and the prisoners barely had time to notice the shadow looming over them before the inferno crashed down. There must have been no alliance between the scavengers and exile after all, because no creature was exempt from the reptile's tongue of flames. Cheerp's senses withdrew from the scene as it left him somewhat numbed. Now he thought he knew what had happened to Khrnch after all. That strange battle of unfamiliar sounds and sensations was not between mimics. It had been between a mimic and this new breed of mimic that could copy more than just sounds. It could copy shapes, and not just one as Cheerp discovered when he was able to reach back out to his surroundings again.

The scaly fire-breather was gone again, and the only creature left standing was a scavenger. Just not one of the twenty which had been fighting in the open when they were cooked alive. Some of the unlucky prisoners looked as if they had survived the burning only to be impaled or shredded by claws larger than their own. The shape-changer was picking through bodies, proving it had a better idea of how to be a scavenger than a mimic, and took some of the pieces that weren't burnt beyond recognition or ruined with gore. Once this was done the scavenger moved on, deeper into the prison, with nothing left to stop it. There were still creatures alive inside, Cheerp could feel it... but none of them were stupid enough to leave their shelters while the monster remained.

The mimic was faced with another difficult choice, and not much time to make it in. As with the swarm, the best choice seemed to be to simply run in the other direction. Cheerp knew better than to trust his instinct without thinking, though. Where there was one shape-changer, could there be others? How many of them would aim for the more dangerous and closed off area beyond the Flat Stone, especially with signs one of their kind had already passed that way? If anything was going to be able to defend against them, it would likely be ahead of him rather than behind. Cheerp could remain and try to flee with the other mimics into one of the other territories or the ones beyond those, expecting either to hit something more deadly head-on in their escape or be caught from behind, or... just maybe, if he tailed the beast inside the prison's first layer of defences now, he could stay out of its way and safe in its wake. Like he had already done so far.

Cheerp had already been very close to the shape-changer without being noticed. Had even called out to it and failed to be seen. He might be able to hide from any others that came along, too, or that might be a flaw in this one alone. If all of them were so limited the other mimics might stand a chance, but did Cheerp want to stick around and try to survive when there were more of them around? Maybe even enough to make swarms of their own? If one of them took a smaller mimic shape, would it ever be safe to work together again? No... this might be Cheerp's best chance, and there was no time to consider all the maybes. Cheerp launched himself forward from branch to branch until he had no choice but to drop to the ground of the clearing, then began searching the area where the scavengers had been waiting. What he found was a hole. The scavengers had left behind stolen muck-digger parts at the entrance, which meant they had been the ones to make it, but it wasn't large enough yet for one of their kind to fit all the way through, as he discovered once he had dropped in.

_Cheeeerp._

Cheerp froze at his namesake sound, dropping as low as he could go without pressing his face into the ground without protection. He had left himself in the open and under the ground for anything watching, and he hadn't even stopped to think about other predators while the shape-changers filled his mind, but now that the sound could have alerted more, Cheerp felt cornered. The sound came again, quieter this time, and Cheerp dared to stretch out an arm and seek the source. Fwtsch! Cheerp responded in turn with Fwtsch's signal, and the little missile launched itself from the treetops much more eagerly than Cheerp had, making the sound the tiny mimic was known for as it broke through the leafy camouflage which had kept it so well disguised. A brief exchange of accusing and conciliatory arm-waving later, the two entwined arms. The whole thing had taken seconds, but conveyed all that each of them had needed to know.

Fwtsch had been with Khrnch when the shape-changer had attacked. It had started as a scavenger, but taken the form of many other things, none of which was the reptile Cheerp had just witnessed. Then it had taken Khrnch's shape, exactly the same, except for the way it moved. It had been searching for Fwtsch when Cheerp called and seemed to think it wiser to go then, but when Cheerp had followed after it Fwtsch had been afraid to be alone. He had been just as afraid when Cheerp had begun to act like the shape-changer, heading off toward the wall on the ground. So Fwtsch had called out to Cheerp and hoped. Of course, now Fwtsch knew why Cheerp had run off, and was pleading not to be left behind. Cheerp couldn't exactly refuse. Fwtsch was barely half Cheerp's size. He might be easier to hide, but that wouldn't last forever, and Fwtsch wasn't nearly as quiet as Cheerp. He'd be killed with barely a thought by one of those monsters. The older mimic stroked Fwtsch soothingly and began to creep toward the smaller hole the false Khrnch must have squeezed through. Gesturing through the gap, Cheerp indicated his plan, and before they had time to discuss it, Fwtsch was already pushing past him and slipping through, curious to see the remains of the battle he had not been able to see for himself and too naive to realize the danger of doing so. Cheerp had no choice. As he had been doing all the while, he followed.


	10. Sophie 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> What Ine says and Sophie hears are very different things, and that isn't just because of her negative outlook. It certainly isn't helping matters, though.

Sophie was wrong. Not that she'd really believed for a moment that she was really ready, but she'd had to say it. Once Ine had started she knew just how badly she'd judged, but she was powerless to stop him as he sped along through what seemed like a scripted sequence she was struggling just to keep up with, let alone form any opinion on. Not that she needed one, apparently. No, that and everything else had already been decided for her. Ine knew what she needed, what her priorities should be, and had already planned out the perfect way to get her where she was going, or at least where he expected her to get to. She wasn't so sure she could do it, and was feeling less certain the more confidently he made his claims. She was just one more mess of an act he had to clean up, but he was one hell of a janitor, so don't worry, Sophie! You'll be an upstanding member of society in no time! Sophie was cringing internally at her own inner translation.

Sophie knew it wasn't what he was saying or meant at all, but he didn't know her yet, didn't understand what he was suggesting yet, and even when he did it would be her fault for falling short and not his for thinking he knew what he should be able to get from her. Had she thought this man was attractive? Angelic? No, it was all a ruse to pull her into this trap, and she could already feel the expectations coiling around and threatening to suffocate her. How did those things manage to sprout in complete strangers so easily? So much so that people rarely seemed to even notice they were feeding them. Did they think that just because those standards were easy for them to meet that they didn't count as much for other people, either? The crumb of bitterness in Sophie's self-pity rallied her. Once in a while she remembered that it wasn't just her but the system around her that built people up to make it that much harder than it needed to be for her. Sure, she was pathetic, but couldn't they just choose between punishing her for it or continuing to demand she do better? When Ine gave her a deadline, Sophie was still clinging to that wisp of defiant energy, and managed to squeak out a complaint.

"Only a week?" She had seen just how much advertising was going on out on those streets, and there was not a single sign of help wanted, literal or figurative. Ine could not possibly expect her to find work in that little time. There was no way. Not with the best PR. Probably not even if she had been the only one with this magic, which she definitely was not, because she had no idea how to  _use_  it! Useless panic swamped Sophie, smothering the minor defence she had summoned against it, and Ine only compounded the problem.

"Why, do you need time for something else?"

Something  _else_? Simply looking for a job wasn't enough if she wanted more time. Was she imagining the skepticism, or were the people of this world really just that much better than the ones in hers? Sophie had taken months to work her way into the lowest-end job in her area because there were simply too many people available for too few jobs and all of her competitors had more to offer than she did with a better attitude. In her panic, Sophie didn't have time or space left in her mind to think the words before they came tumbling out.

"What if I can't find work?"

If she had been imagining it before, Sophie  _knew_  she wasn't now. Ine was staring at her in silent disapproval for daring to suggest she could fail to meet his demands. As if he couldn't even find the words to shame her over her imagined future. Then he let her in on the secret: she wasn't expected to job search. In fact, she wasn't even being given a choice. She was being voluntold into the jobs nobody else wanted, and if she was so bad at them that they all fired her for incompetence then she would be tested for some sort of disability and either dropped into more of the many ridiculous workshops she had already been through and failed to help her in the past or given a small allowance that she could only spend with permission. It sounded like her old life had gotten bored doing of the same dull grind and and decided to crank up the levels of mental and physical pain it could induce. She was already imagining herself stained in grease from the grimiest restaurants, wading into sewage, spraying noxious chemicals into writhing bug masses, jarring free of the cycle of disgust just short of imagining herself carving into some poor animal in a slaughterhouse. Her skin was crawling and her muscles ached with tension, but since Sophie was already feeling sick and tired, the pain just faded into the background along with everything else.

She'd barely heard any of what Ine had said, clinging only to the important words in an attempt to keep her head above the flooding panic long enough for her to make it out of the meeting alive, and for some reason her mind lingered over the most foreboding words. With blood still clinging to her imaginary hands, Sophie tried to rub her palms clean of the liquid chilling them without Ine picking up on it, posing another question both out of concern for the possibility and to keep his attention off of her fidgeting.

"Recruitment? Like soldiers?"

"Of course not. You don't have the skills for that. You'll be doing supervised menial labour first."

Oh. Of course. She hadn't even thought about it, but it was true. Even killing things the right way would take some level of skill or knowledge, especially if this world had to contend with magic. How could you be an effective killer without even knowing what the thing you were killing was? What if they had three hearts, or their organs were somewhere completely different from usual, or they didn't even  _have_  any fleshy bits? Sewers and junk food weren't off the table yet, though. Yippee. She'd get to have someone watch as she sank into this new level of hell, too. Maybe that was where she was after all. Some weird kind of afterlife where you were rewarded for how you did in life by doing more of the same. Oops. Guess she should have tried harder in life, huh?

"Sophie, if you have a question, ask me or your circall. Nobody else will understand why you're saying such strange things."

Don 't embarrass yourself in front of company, Sophie. Wait, no, that wasn't right. Don't embarrass  _me_  in front of company, Sophie. Yeah, that sounded about right. Could Ine be held responsible for her failures? Was that why he was offering to suffer through more of her ignorance? Wait, shit! Forget all that, wasn't she supposed to be hiding the fact that she was from another world? Fuck! She must have been super obvious if he was calling her out on it  _and_  earning her not to do it again. Sophie tried to hold herself as professionally as possible and act normal. She should act like this was normal in whatever part of the world she was pretending to be from, right? She hadn't technically been caught yet if she could pull that off...

"What do you mean, strange?"

"I mean you don't belong here."

People normally said moments like this were a slap to the face, or a stab in the gut when they talked about moments like this. Sophie knew it hurt, but she couldn't have given it a source like that. The pain she felt was too general, like someone had finally pulled the layer of gauze off that had been shielding and numbing her from her own pain until now, making it feel normal and bearable. She'd had a new life only a day or two now, and already she wanted to die again. Except, would that just send her to a new world all over again? Even death was no escape now. She'd seen it in her skills, hadn't she? Rebirth. She hadn't taken the time to look, hadn't really wanted to know for sure. Fear of being trapped in a cycle of death and punishment without reprieve made her tremble. Maybe someone else had to do it. Maybe she could be free if she died in some other way. She would need every inch of courage she could scrape together to say the words, to out herself after convincing herself so thoroughly of the need to hide it, but it might be her only chance to get it over with.

"What if I don't?"

For the first time, Sophie thought she saw Ine really thinking about her words, instead of just which ones he should use himself. When he began, it was with the finality of someone who knew exactly what needed to be done again, but now Sophie was glad for it. Let him pass his judgement, and the truth come out, and that take her where it would. She was done trying.

"You know you don't. There is nobody like you here. You know you have no place among them. You cannot  _be_ like them."

Sophie felt herself begin to relax. Just as she had done before she died, and as she did every time just before dying in her dreams. The fear was still there, but the gauze had been drawn over it now, and it was muted and acknowledged, but not really felt. Stronger now was the acceptance that comes with knowing there is no longer any chance of escape when you didn't really have the energy to keep fighting for it anyway. Weariness had caught her, and it was strangely cathartic to hear all the things she had always known finally being said aloud, and by someone else no less. Someone was finally admitting how unfair and unrealistic it had been to expect more of her. That they had never really expected anything of her, and so she could stop pretending, stop trying, because there wasn't really any reason left to keep it up. She wanted to close her eyes and release it all, just let it happen, but a morbid curiosity made her keep her eyes open to see how it would all unfold in the end. Then the pretty angel was holding her hands and looking her in the eye. He had such lovely eyes, warm and dark like the rest of him.

"But you are not alone, Sophie. You don't have to be like them. I like you just the way you are."

Sophie choked, her mouth and throat suddenly parched. She must have lost her mind. Or fallen asleep. She could be hearing things. It could be a cruel joke. Or she'd already died again and this was the  _next_  life, which was just like the last but everything was better. It could be anything, really,  _except_  real. Had she stumbled on set of a movie in progress?

"You don't even know me..." Oh crap, and she even sounded like she was reading the cliched script. No, she just meant there was no reason to like her. She had nothing to offer, but it was more relevant to point out that they were strangers, wasn't it? What was this? What was Ine want from her?  
  
"You haven’t given me a  _chance_  to get to know you yet." 

The words pierced like a needle through the chaotic whirl of thoughts and without meaning to, she followed the thread behind it. She hadn't been doing it on purpose, but Ine was right. Sophie hadn't expected anything to come of this meeting, and so she hadn't bothered to give Ine much to work with. She'd expected him to fix everything or nothing without her even doing anything, because nobody had ever really wanted to listen before in the first place. Shame leaked in after the realizations, but greater was the urge to desperately try to fix her mistake now that it seemed more manageable. It was almost enough to make her forget that she'd all but given herself away, and Ine had ignored that in favor of helping her out of the hole she'd dug herself. It still had an uncomfortable tinge of romace to it, with him still holding her hands like that. She felt a blush rising to burn her cheeks, but Ine seemed peacefully unaware of any awkwardness, so maybe it was just another cultural gap, like when Ine had knelt down to apologize. Yes, that made much more sense. People weren't this forward in real life without reciprocation unless they were creeps, and Ine  _still_  didn't match that vibe. He genuinely seemed oblivious to what his actions and words were suggesting. His interest in her was purely professional, or maybe just out of pity.

Sophie swallowed the apologies, the thanks, the explanations, the lies, everything that wanted to work its way onto her tongue at once, and instead she made herself stop to think. Then she made herself stop thinking, because that hadn't helped so far, anyway. She had never wanted to or felt so much like she should ask for help before, but now that the time had finally arrived, Sophie was finding that she didn't know where to begin. She had no words to describe what was wrong, she didn't know how he could help, and she didn't entirely believe he  _could_ , but Ine was right. It wasn't fair to give up without even letting him try. After several long, terrible, brain-wracking moments, Sophie finally pleaded with the only words she had.

"I need help."

 "Okay. I will help you by keeping your origins secret and answering any questions, so please contact me with whatever you need, or when you are confused."

So he really did know. He hadn't missed her allusions, unintentional though some of them were. It registered to her mind, and she knew it was a relief of some burden inside her, but under the tension of more immediate concerns it felt inconsequetial. She still didn't know how to proceed. Seconds stretched with silence and Sophie wondered if it was really impossible after all because she couldn't take the first step. What irony, if the reason nobody could help her was because she couldn't reach out to take the hand they offered.  
  
"You're still adjusting to this world, so it's hard to understand everything. Trust me to guide you until you can do it yourself. I'll tell you exactly what to do, and how to reach me if it goes wrong, so don't be afraid to act. Okay?"  
  
When the counsellor prodded Sophie with this helpful addition, the woman was sure she was vibrating with nerves, and that Ine must have felt it through their hands, but he didn't react to it if he noticed. He kept his eyes on hers, and though she wanted to escape their grasp and the inadequacy their meeting made her feel, Sophie couldn't look away. He was asking her to walk on a glass road one step at a time according to a map and trust him to catch her if she fell. Well, he had the wings for it. Sophie bit her lip.

"...okay."

Ine nodded with an encouraging sort of air, and squeezed her hands softly. 

"Here is what you are going to do..."


	11. Sophie 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> With a new ally and a basic plan, Sophie sets out to find a new home and work, hopefully bringing her one step closer to her goals.

In the time it took Sophie to leave the counsellor's office and build up the courage to dive into the sea of inhuman bodies outside, Sophie had realized all the things she hadn't thought or said, but should have. It was always too late to do anything about these revelations when they came, but it was never too late to regret her failures. She couldn't go back in right after leaving, and even if Ine had told her to contact him she was sure he hadn't meant to hear from her quite so soon. Besides, she had a list of things to worry about first, so there was no point adding to it yet. For now she would just put together a list of her own, filled with questions like why Ine had been so willing to accept and help her despite her secret, how he had seemed to know it before she had said anything, and all the blunt questions about this world she hadn't been able to ask while pretending to belong in it. The circall was at the center of her curiosity, and she would have loved to take the time to sit down with it and delve into its secrets, but she didn't dare stop in the middle of a busy street full of monsterous creatures in order to open it up or take time out of the amount she had to complete Ine's tasks. That exciting development would have to wait until she'd been given a job and a home, which Ine had promised would be faster than she expected.

With her secret out in the open, Sophie had been more up front with her concerns, and Ine had given her the relevant information she'd needed to make sense of her situation and his expectations. Apparently there wasn't exactly a job market in this world. Jobs were prescribed. People started out in the most basic unskilled jobs and earned their way slowly into other fields by proving their skills and attitude were up to the task. Each field and position had its own related benefits, which meant even the hardest and dirtiest jobs had offers attached to them which would draw in people capable of handling the task. It didn't hurt that many dangers and distasteful activities could be avoided or minimized by those with the right magic. It was harder to transfer out of an area that had less applicants, but even that wasn't too terrible thanks to the people she was going to visit first.

Recruiters were responsible for making sure their city's needs were met by the most capable candidates possible. That meant that they kept track of and directed the flow of workers in and out of each field, and if Sophie wanted a job, she would have to go through them to get one. Ine had told her to expect minimal fuss from this part of the day, as her lack of experience would register when her circall was scanned and no matter what her skills might be she would be forced to take one of the entry level jobs usually given to youths in order to get them used to the responsibilities of work. She would be given the information she needed to find her place of work, and be taught her duties on the first day, but before all that she had to actually  _get_  there, and for all the marvels of this world, apparently foot travel was still more common than any other form.

Since all Sophie could do until she reached the location Ine had helpfully directed her to was keep her eye out for the landmarks he had named, Sophie tried to take advantage of her required alertness. Ine had promised that none of the creatures within the city posed any danger or threat to her so long as she kept her distance where possible, so the woman allowed only her eyes to wander. On first glance every new beast on the streets had been new and strange, but now she had noticed unexpected patterns between the city's inhabitants and visitors. She had a growing suspicion that while there were indeed quite a diverse collection of species present, there were only a few that actually remained here in the city on a long-term basis. The larger portion of creatures milling about the streets were trading, collecting, or delivering goods, stopping into buildings which seemed to offer services that stretched beyond the city's borders, and locations which were meant for temporary customers such as inns and what seemed like local attractions.

Expecting to be dealing more with regular inhabitants of the city if she was going to call it home, Sophie sought out positions that seemed more permanent to determine the common races. The group Sophie most immediately recognized were humans. Admittedly, they weren’t all the kind she was used to seeing, but they all had the same general characteristics that if not human at least labeled them humanoid in her mind. Compared to the clearly non-human types they toiled alongside, the humans looked familiar even when they sported what would have distinguished them as different in the fantasy worlds back home. Ine had already proven that extra parts didn’t necessarily mean one wasn’t human, so Sophie wasn’t sure what to think of those with strange colours or textures to their skin, flames where hair might have been, or many other fairly cosmetic differences. With the variety of completely alien creatures surrounding her, she was happier to catalogue them on her side of the divide, though, and Sophie took a moment to thank her lucky stars that she had ended up in a world where humanity was still a common factor.

Others weren't so simple to classify, but from their shape Sophie could tell which bodies probably functioned differently from her own, and used that as a standard. She had no name to attach to these groups, nor could she be sure they really belonged together except by assumptions she made based on physical similarity, but she had to go by something damn it. With that, Sophie decided there were basically three types of people in the sky sands, which Ine had informed her was properly called Asothir in the local human tongue.

The first were those that resembled animals in their behaviour and build; they tended not to use hands, but made due with other appendages, tools, mouths, or the like. These generally seemed to use some form of verbal or sign language to communicate, and so while they were frightening and strange to behold they were also within the scope of Sophie's understanding. She gave them the status in her mind of mutated intelligent animals, like werewolves but hopefully with more self control. Sophie called these Beasts.

The second were far more alien. These often had very unfamiliar shapes or improbable biology, if any at all. Included in this group were the small metallic insects - insectoid metals? - that had frightened her earlier. Things that didn't have faces or bones to direct their expression or motion. Things with no mouths to eat with or stomachs where those mouths could lead to process fuel. Things which seemed to make deals without any hint of speech or signing, which moved through the crowds gracefully without eyes to guide them, or just plain didn't seem possible - these were the ones Sophie called Horrors. Not that all of them were horrifying, but there was a strong inclination.

Lastly, there were the Changelings. So named because they acted very human although they clearly weren't. These were generally people  _capable_  of human acts despite non-human bodies. Some had to fight to stand upright or tried to express emotions without the right facial features, but others were detracting from themselves to complete the image such as keeping additional limbs very still or moving more deliberately and slow than was natural to them. The attempts to conform often made the differences stand out that much more.

Sophie couldn't have begun to break the groups down any further at the moment. There were simply too many, and Sophie resolved only to get to know them when she needed to. She would stick to her own kind as long as she could. Yeah, okay, it was probably very racist or something, but she couldn't  _help_  it. They were scary. Most of them seemed like they were from some horror movie or else like they could eat her without batting an eye. Being told she would be fine if she kept her distance hadn't helped with that.

It was a relief to finally reach her next stop, which she had half expected to be another office. She wasn't entirely wrong. The room was wide open and filled with desks, and Sophie faltered as she began to notice another pattern she hadn't questioned before. The healer's ward, the counsellor's office, and now here... where had all the monsters gone? Just to be sure it wasn't her imagination, Sophie searched the sprawling room and peeked back outside. There were no signs that she could see which made the place a human sanctuary, but there were few exceptions to the human clients within. Those who  _were_  non-human didn't seem so strange that it would make much functional difference. Sophie was still wondering what could explain this when she was startled by a voice at her shoulder.

It was hard enough to listen without staring when people didn't speak the language she was hearing, but it was downright impossible when the speaker was inhuman, Sophie decided. She wasn't sure what to call the gnashing parts that she presumed were the mouth, but she was unable to look away from them while they were in motion.

"Miss? Are you okay? I asked if I can help you."  
  
"Work." Sophie whimpered at the not-teeth. The jaw opened wider to reveal still more vicious implements, and Sophie shivered and paled before the mouth returned to normal. 

“Oh? You're looking to transfer to another position?" Sophie had to assume that the translator in her circall was able to understad some hidden signals she could not, because the shifting mass of interlocked parts that she was hesitant to refer to as a body and the chilling sounds it was making did not in any way translate to her the same message as the light and chipper tone her circall was using to represent it. When Sophie did not immediately respond, the apparently female creature went on. "In that case, I can direct you to a suitable recruiter if you'll just lt me scan your circall."

Sophie flinched as one limb she had not recognized as such until it moved extended from the rest of the body, a similar device presented about half-way up behind a knobby section of the... arm.

"Oh, dear. Do you need special care? So sorry. I am not used to human cues yet. Please give me a moment to find someone who will be able to tend you more delicately." Sophie wasn't sure what to make of that, or what kind of special care she was supposed to be getting, but once again the abomination didn't really stop to await an answer, and Sophie couldn't have been more pleased to see it go despite the kind concern she had been shown. There was a little comedy in the disconnect between the horror that had been that creature and the orderly, everyday business affairs taking place around it, but mostly it was just disturbing and made her want to gag.

Yup, she was racist as hell, and no matter how much she hated that truth, she didn't think it was likely to change. It was such a visceral reaction. She wasn't sure if it was quite as bad as what the word would have meant in a world where the differences being discriminated against were just culture and slight deviations in appearance, but nobody else seemed to be looking twice at the creature. Just one more area where she was proving her inadequacy, Sophie lamented. She felt the need to sit down before she crumpled, and although there were no seats for waiting clients there were a number of desks which were empty of any occupants, so she sagged into one of the client-side chairs and squeezed her eyes shut. The light was leaving a burning around her eyes and her head crackled with streaks of pain at every echoing sound. Sophie had become accustomed to her daily work in retail and the bustle involved, but there were so many new stimuli to adjust to that she felt overwhelmed already, although it could only have been a few hours since she had left Si's care.

Daring to crack an eye open, Sophie realized she was technically still following her directions by waiting for someone to find and guide her to a recruiter. She actually had a little time here. It would mean pushing through the pain, but that was nothing new to Sophie, so she took advantage of this brief reprieve to squeeze one of the prisms on her circall between a finger and thumb, a technique Ine had taught her in case she wanted to activate it without attracting attention. The familiar hologram sparked to life and began whirling before Sophie's tired eyes. She had so much left to explore, but she'd had time to think over her next move since she had last used the menu, and decided where the most interesting information would be found. 

_Welcome back, Sophie!_

The comforting tinkle of her star's greeting washed over Sophie and she caught herself before responding. Was it normal to talk to her circall, or had she been committing a faux pas back in Ine's office? Ine had said that speaking to use one's circall wasn't common for privacy reasons, but she had been given the feeling that he meant using commands rather than actually talking  _with_  them. She frowned, uncertain how to proceed, but the star knew this routine well enough to compensate for her pauses.

 _This is your Shop scroll! Here you will find new services and possible upgrades for your circall!_ _Your circall is a very flexible tool, but it runs on magic! You will need to invest magic and shards into your circall to unlock certain services, but you can preview the benefits of those services here in order to choose the best investments for you! Increase the range of your own abilities by enhancing them with your circall! To learn more about magic investment, upgrades, or for further inquiries, check your Help scroll from the main menu!_

New services to increase her abilities? Sophie scanned down the new list which had formed upon her new illusory scroll. The list was extensive, including unlocking perks, skills, expansions, adding new scrolls to her menu, and some very interesting looking options near the end of the list that she almost hadn't bothered to check as the requirements for each service grew, but had drawn her attention for the simple fact that they didn't follow the same structure as the others. They didn't list any requirements or any further explanation of their utility as the others had, offering only a title for each. It had seemed as though she would be able to unlock some of the minor options in the shop, and maybe she should have looked into those first, but the allure of mystery called to Sophie's curiosity.

_Global Release_

Anything global on scale had to be important. Sophie stalled, peering out at her surroundings in search of the special care she was supposed to be waiting on. No sign of anyone specifically seeking her out yet. She didn't want to be interrupted in the middle of some kind of drastic revelation. When she was somewhat assured she could at least read up a little on the option, she whispered the words. Sophie expected the scroll to extend or her circall to speak up as it had before to expand on the idea. Instead, she was plunged into darkness. In the empty black, Sophie's nerves snapped at the strain suddenly tearing at their edges, but even when her circall lit with an intense blue glow her panic did not abate. She had no idea what she had done, or where she was, but she saw no desks, chairs, people, or even monsters in the gloom. There would have been absolute silence if her own rapid breathing and beating heart weren't filling her head with distracting noise. Her eyes darted around until they caught something in the distance, a far off light like her own which had not been there before. As she watched, more pinpricks began to join the first, some closer than others, but all stringed together by spider threads of blue light.

Finally, one of the lights was near enough for her to make it out. Her fear was replaced with awe. Mere yards away, head lifted and solemn, was a man dressed head to toe in golden scale armor. No, she corrected herself as she looked closer. Not quite a man, and not armor at all. He sat not upon a seat like her own, but a thick tail, tip twitching in the growing light with the same shining polish as the rest of him. Delicately curved horns framed his face in what she had mistaken for the shape of a helm, disguising the pebbled skin beneath. She recognized this creature, was sure she'd seen it in mythology or some of her games, but couldn't recall the name of it. She hadn't thought of them as anything but experience fodder at the time, but those pixels had not done the race justice. Without the vicious snarl or battle-ready pose distorting muscles and figure, there was too much that was too human in the longing way he stared off into the distance, as she had, at the other lights.

The lights! Sophie turned her attention back to her surroundings to find a world awash with the blue glow of screens and shards linked by a web of light. The circalls looked just like her own, and as she watched she could see others accessing screens she hadn't found yet, opening maps and logs, laughing at images, and scrolling through texts. Although the devices were different, Sophie had a moment of recognition. They were all sharing a connected experience. Ine had said that circalls shared between individuals, but this was the difference between a phone call and the internet. There was just so much more to share than words. 

Then the world blinked out again, and Sophie was back in the recruitment office, staring dumbly at her screen.

_Global  Release_

No kidding.

 


End file.
